The tall yellow HYPOCHŒRIS UNIFLORA, CENTAUREA UNIFLORA, the Golden Hawkweed (Crepis aurea) drawn from life in the July fields.
If it is not possible to transplant to the plains the clean, invigorating air which goes so far to form the joy exhaled of Alpine meadows; if we may not lay on the wonderful atmosphere of the Alps as we may the ozone from the seaside,—we can at least take the flowers, those brilliant children of the Alpine ether, and thus help materially towards mountain purity in our parks and gardens. Some of the gaiety might be lost in the process—some of that intensity of colouring which steals over the very grass as it climbs the mountain-side and encroaches upon the kingdom of the Rhododendron. Astrantia major might lose its rosy-magenta blush and assume a more or less livid green-white; Lychnis, Geranium, and Salvia might lack something of their Alpine lustre; a certain mildness might reign generally in the place of mountain briskness; but, on the whole, the loss to the flowers would be small and the gain to the garden or the landscape immense, and we should find that we had annexed much of the charm and joy of Alpine days—
“Days lit with the flame of the lamps of the flowers.”
CHAPTER XII
SOME WAYS AND MEANS