The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1880-06-16
A Flower that lures the Alpine Tour
lists to Destruction

Every traveller in Switzerland js
familiar with the tender star-shaped
flowers OF this curious plant, whose
sage-green blossoms are stuck into the
hat of every guide, and are collected
with rare ingenuity by the importunate
little rascals who race the carriages on
the road. or start out like rabbits from
the bushes as the pedestrian begins his
solitary climb. The plant is scarce and
very partial. 1t Is found in the Enga-
dine; seldom in the Bernese Oberland,
and has particular corners ar / MOUNT
aims that it loves to effect, This scarcity
and partiality gave to the Edelweiss a
somewhat unhealty notOriety. The
rarer it became the more ambitious
were the excursionists to obtain a sprig.
Some years ago every cockney hat was
adorned with the curious bloom, feath4
cred, as its botanical name implies, like
an old mans beard, and it was no longer
a sign of patience and endurance to
wear this pretty badge that hitherto had
denoted long climb and patient search.
When tourists began to brand the alpen-
stocks down in the valley with the name
of mountain whose base they touched,
but whose tops they never attempted to
ICdCus bLCl "dO lSOEl"tl Nliu ny lA4O
handful at Interlaken, CiiamoUni, and
Grindelwald, and the guides, porters
and boys were tempted to rife the
mountains of their peerless flowers.
When the rage for art greens came upon
us in full force, &c -thetic young ladies
hattered themselves that wreath of the
soft petals would look becoming in the
hair, and some went so far as to appear
e., ILL -. Al. ~ g Yl,r,
Alps smOthered in Edelweiss, As for
the flower itself, it was not SC courteous
and graceful as the Indian plant of
beauty, that raises up its head and opens
at the approach of q woman. On the
contrary, 1t refused to be in any way
gracious at the touch of the female
botanist1, and sternly declined to be
transplantEd. The more obstinate was
the Edslweiss, the more determined be-
came the ladies, and they purchased it
by the root, carefully tended it during
the Journey home, nursed it across the
sea, watched it at every railway station,
and handed it to the family gardener,
in order to hear in few days that the
plant, sickening and signing for its
mountain home, had refused to exist in
England with the aid of any artificial
process
There have been only one or two very
rare and exceptional cases where the
Edelweiss was induced to live and give
forth flowers in England, and then the
result was only obtained by system of
nursing that would have worn out the
majority of botanists. At last the Swiss
Government determined to put down by
law the wholesale destruction of this
popular flower. 1t was rapidly disap-
pearing altogether from the country,
when an enactment made it penal to
take a plant up by the roots. The
dignity and importance of legislation
gave a new impetus to the interest that
was attached to the plant, and going in
search of the Edelweiss become as at
tractive a source of danger as any to be
found in Switzerland. Unaccompanied
by guides and straying from the beaten
tracks, more than one tourist has risked
his life, and several have been already
killed, in the quest