Summer Flowers of the High Alps
Somerville Hastings
9781465663696
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
No one can visit Switzerland for the first time without being struck with the singular beauty of its wild flowers. In the early summer the whole country from the lowland meadows right up to the snowline is ablaze with beauty. Probably in no other part of the world are the forms of the flowers more pleasing and their colours more brilliant. Hence it is that almost everyone who visits the Alps, however little interest he may take in the wild flowers of his own home, desires to know something of the wonderful new forms that everywhere meet his gaze. Here the charm of novelty also comes in, for at least half the flowers met with in the Alps are absent from the plains, and many of the species that occur in both situations have, as we shall see later, acquired such different characters at high altitudes as to be with difficulty at first sight recognised. Those who would see Switzerland in all its beauty, and as far as its floral treasures are concerned, at its best, must visit it in early June before the hay is cut. Otherwise they will miss the glory of the unmown meadows, and although many of the spring flowers, like the Crocuses and Primulas, may still be found in small quantities at high altitudes even in July, the striking effect of the large masses of these flowers will be entirely wanting. If we travel to Switzerland by the ordinary tourist route, across Germany or France, and then ascend the mountain peaks, we shall, in the first part of our journey, notice but few differences in the vegetation from that to which we are accustomed. The wild flowers of France and Germany are very like those of the South of England and, except that perhaps the yellow Fuller’s Thistle (Circium oloraceum) may be seen in damp places near the railway, very little of botanical interest will be observed until the customs are passed and Switzerland itself is reached. Even here the traveller may be for a time a little disappointed. The first unfamiliar plant to be noticed will very likely be the Red-berried Elder (Sambucus racemosa). A little later, in some shady wood, the tall feathery Spiræa (Spiræa Aruncus), or the beautiful little May-Lily (Maianthemum bifolium), may be seen. Or a glimpse of the white-flowered Rampion (Phyteuma spicatum) or the Alpine Honeysuckle (Lonicera alpigena), with its twin red berries, may be had in passing. But not until the mountains themselves are reached will the tourist discover that he has entered into an entirely new plant world.
