214 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



down to Meiringen was excessively interesting, being ice- 

 worn everywhere. We stayed an hour at the fine Handeck 

 cascade, and then, with the help of a chaise, into which two 

 ladies hospitably received us, got on to Meiringen. Here we 

 stayed two days, exploring the gorge of the Aar and the 

 wonderful rock-barrier of the Kirchet, visited the Reichenbach 

 falls, and had an excursion to Brunig, where, in some hilly 

 beech woods, we were greatly pleased to find the beautiful 

 Cephalanthera rubra in fair numbers and in full flower. This 

 is one of the rarest of British orchises, having been found 

 only at long intervals in Gloucestershire and Somersetshire. 

 I remember, I think about fifty years ago, seeing a newly 

 gathered specimen exhibited at the Linnean Society. Other 

 orchises which occur at similar long intervals are the beautiful 

 ladies slipper {Cypripedmin calceohcs) in some Yorkshire woods, 

 and the strange goat-orchis {O.hircind) in copses in Kent and 

 Suffolk. In all these cases, no doubt, the plant persists in the 

 respective localities, but is accidentally prevented from flower- 

 ing, or requires some specially favourable seasons which only 

 recur at long intervals. We then went on to Lauterbrunnen 

 and the Wengern Alp, where we stayed two days, botanizing 

 chiefly among the woods and slopes near the Trummetthal. 

 We were, however, so dreadfully persecuted by swarms of 

 blood-sucking flies, which filled the air and covered us in 

 thousands, piercing through our thin clothing, that we returned 

 home some days earlier than we had intended. 



In 1896 I wrote three articles. "How best to model the 

 Earth," in the Contemporary Review (May), was a discussion 

 of the proposal by Elisee Reclus to erect an enormous model 

 of the globe, about four hundred and twenty feet in diameter, 

 giving a scale about one-third smaller than our ordnance 

 maps of one inch to a mile. It was to be modelled in 

 minute detail on the convex side, and would therefore 

 require to be completely covered in by a building nearly 

 six hundred feet high, and would need an elaborate system 

 of platforms and staircases in order to see it, while only 

 a very small portion of it could be seen at once, and 

 accurate photographs could only be taken of very small areas. 



