980 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



isolated patches or plants, counted fifteen or twenty heads together. 

 The Gentian here is not acaulis, but excisa, so named from its calyx, 

 which stands away from the flower. Its stalks are longer than those of 

 aoaulis, and its leaves are larger. The two species are so much alike 

 that they are often mistaken for each other. In a garden the most 

 important difference is that of habit, at least according to my experience. 

 Acaulis increases so rapidly that it becomes matted together, and 

 perpetual division is necessary to make it flower well ; whereas excisa 

 remains more stationary and flowers steadily. Here excisa was of every 

 shade of blue and purple. These Gentians were in full beauty and 

 a ] most incredible blossom on June 20, but before another week was over 

 they had passed off, and to find them in abundance one had to climb higher. 

 Anemone sulphurca, too, was just in perfection and abundant at the same 

 levels as the Gentians, though here it is not nearly so fine as on the Sim- 

 plon, where it is more magnificent than I have ever seen it elsewhere. 

 Ranunculus glacialis, of the very finest, was out at its own great heights. 



On the lower hillsides were the sweet pale pink or cream-coloured 

 Daphne striata, and numbers of Orchises, pink, dark purple, and the 

 sweet white Butterfly. Aster alpinus came out at the end of June, 

 together with Arnica and the glorious large golden Senecio. Gentiana 

 punctata (pale yellow with dark spots) and utriculosa (a bright dark 

 blue annual), not very common, were also in blossom, and with the 

 lilac campcstris remained in full bloom till I left the Engadine on 

 July 17. Then too, in the middle of July, the Alpine Rhododendrons 

 (ferrugineum) were at their best, and the side of the ravine facing north, 

 going up the Julier Pass, was simply crimson with them, both under the 

 Silver Firs and Larches, and also for some way higher up after the trees 

 had ended. They were, indeed, wonderfully beautiful, growing in a 

 setting of golden green moss and bilberry plants, with a clear mountain 

 torrent tossing over rocks below them. 



On July 16, the day before I left, I drove up the Julier to see what 

 plants were to be found there, and besides those already named were 

 quantities of Primula integrifolia and Azalea procumbens. The first 

 Primula I found was quite over and beginning to seed ; but, knowing the 

 difference in climate caused by aspect, I went a few yards higher, where 

 the aspect was more northern, and there I found it in blossom, covering 

 the ground with sheets of pink. Here again may I repeat the lesson 

 Nature teaches as to aspect. Below, at Silvaplana, when the large blue 

 Gentians (as well as Gentiana verna) were dead and dried on a small 

 mound facing south or eastward, they were still in full beauty on the 

 other side of the same mound and at the same elevation, half a dozen 

 yards off. But what most travellers do not understand is the difference 

 between plants of different levels and seasons, and they class them 

 all as " Alpines." Anemone sulphurea, and Gentians such as acaulis 

 or excisa and verna, for instance, are not plants of the highest levels, 

 such as Ranunculus glacialis or Eritrichium nanum. Those who 

 visit Switzerland in July, August, or September find them sometimes in 

 considerable numbers at or near these levels, and therefore regard these 

 heights as their natural habitat. But these are really only the stragglers 

 from their true homes below, which come out later on the colder heights. 



