Page:Canadian Alpine Journal I, 1.djvu/196

Rh in search of them, as is more or less the case at Lake Louise and Glacier, for they seem to cover the whole locality with a richly colored profusion, which rivals the flower-beds in cultivated gardens.

The Banff Hotel stands on the cliff, high above the confluence of the Spray and the Bow rivers; steep banks broken by large rocky prominences sweep down from its wide verandas to the boiling torrents below, and here in sheltered nooks and crannies grow the curiously-branched Coral-roots (Corallorhiza innata), while the tendrils of the white and purple Vetches trail over the stones, and the Wild Clematis (Clematis Columbiana) winds its leaf-stalks around the branches of adjacent bushes. Lower down you will find huge clumps of the Service-berry (Amelanchier alnifolia), an attractive shrub bearing many clusters of snow-white blossoms amid its pale green foliage, and farther on the Fireweeds flare and flash like torches burning in the long grass.

Along the banks of the Bow river stretch flat meadows where conifers grow sparsely, and the pungent scent of pine and balsam fills the air with subtle sweetness. The ground is covered with dry moss and a tangle of short green growths, above which tower tasselled rushes. Here flourish the exquisite white blossoms of the One-flowered Wintergreen (Moneses uniflora), which has been so aptly named the "Single Delight," its waxen-petalled cups bent downwards close to the soil, and its delicate fragrance floating forth on the July breeze.

The roads which thread the forests and lead to those hot sulphur springs which gush forth out of the mountain-sides in copious streams, are fringed by the small plant-like shrubs of the Birch-leaved Spiræa (Spiraea lucida), crowned in August by big clusters of creamy blossoms faintly tinged with pink, which smell extremely sweet, and are particularly attractive to the