Page:Canadian Alpine Journal I, 1.djvu/204

Rh the sky overhead, while the Yellow Columbines (Aquilegia flavescens) toss their heads in the passing breeze and a thousand flowers spangle the grass, their star-like faces upturned to meet the smile of the sun. These alpine gardens, held close in the curved arms of the hills, or set like jewels on the bare breast of the stone bastions, are one of the great marvels wrought by Nature in the recesses of the Western mountains, the contrast between the beauty of the blossoms and their barren surroundings being as vivid as it is enchanting.

The Bunch-berry (Cornus Canadensis) is a dweller in the dense forests, where its white cruciform flowers and scarlet fruits are familiar to all travellers. So also is the Queen-cup (Clintonia uniflora), so named by me in English in 1903, the name being now adopted in the Canadian nomenclature of plants; for queen it certainly is of all the lovely flower-cups which grow in the mountain valleys, its pure white petals forming a chalice fit for the First Lady in our land, and its large pale green leaves constituting a fitting background for so ethereal a bloom.

On the dry sunny flats at an elevation of from 4000 to 5000 feet above the level of the sea, the Giant Sunflowers (Helianthus giganteus), Great-flowered Gaillardias (Gaillardia aristata), full-fringed Golden-rods (Solidago Canadensis, S. decumbens) and Heart-leaf Arnicas (Arnica cordifolia) flaunt their gay golden petals; tall and handsome plants they are and very attractive. Close beside them grows the frail little Wild Flax (Linum Lewisii), which droops as soon as it is gathered and withers at a touch, the humble Narrow-leaved Puccoon (Lithospermum angustifolium), the Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus Crisis-galli), Tall Lungwort (Mertensia paniculata) and Loco-weed (Oxytropis Lamberti), bushes covered with softly-blushing Prickly Roses (Rosa acicularis), flanked by