The Portland daily press., 1894-03-14
FAMED PLANT OF SWITZERLAND.
The Wholesale Destruction of Edelweis
Stopped by the Little Republic.
Maria, 1894

The Wholesale Destruction of Ede1weisa
Stopped by the Little Republic.
Every traveller in Switzerland is famil-
lar with the tender star shaped flowers of
this curious plant, whose sage green bios
SONS are stuck into the hat of every guide
and collected with rare ingenuity by the
importunate little rascals who race the
carriages on the road or start out like rab-
bits from the bushes as the pedestrian be-
gins his solitary climb. The plant is scarce
and very partial.
1t is found in the Engadine, seldom in
the Bernese Oberland, and has particular
corners and mountains that it loves to af-
feet. This scarcity and partiality gave to
the edelweiss somewhat unhealthy no.
toriety. The rarer it became the more
ambitious were the excursionists to obtain
sprig. Some years ago every cockney
hat was adorned with the curious bloom,
feathered, as its botanical name implies,
like an old mans beard, and it was no
longer sign of patience and endurance
to wear this pretty badge that hitherto
had denoted long climb and patient
search
When tourists began to brand their al
penstocks down in the valley with the name
of a mountain whose base they touched,
but whose top they never attempted to
reach, then was edelweiss sold by the
handful at Interlaken, Chamounix and
Grindelwald, and the guides, porters and
boys were tempted to rife the mountains
of their peerless flowers.
When the rage for art green's came upon
us in full force, aesthetic young ladies fat
tered themselves that wreath of these
soft petals would look becoming in the
hair, and some went so far as to appear at
fancy balls in the character of the Alps
smothered in edelweiss.
AS for the flower itself, it refused to be
in any way gracious at the touch of a bot
anist and sternly declined to be trans
planted. The more obstinate was the edel-
weiss the more determined became the
florists, 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 refus-
ed to exist in England with the aid Of any
artificial process. There have been only
one OF two 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 determin-
ed to put down by law the wholesale de-
struction of this popular flower. Tt was
rapidly disappearing altogether from the
country when an enactment made it penal
to take plant up by the roots. The dig
nifty and Importance Of legislation gave
new impetus to the interest that was at
tached to the plant, and going in search
of the edelweiss became as attractive
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 killed in the quest
Philadelphia Times.