Page:Canadian Alpine Journal I, 2.djvu/142

270 two hundred feet above this point we found the strawberry (Fragaris bracteata): great luscious berries three-quarters to one inch long. Sweeter than many a cultivated variety, they were welcome company at a height where there was no water.

On September 9th, we climbed a bare, rocky point to look for Brazeau Lake. There was little of the floral life left, though fungi of many varieties were very numerous, even to tree-line, and we were surprised to come across the little Erigeron lanatus at 9000 feet. The plant was a new one to me, though Professor Macoun mentions finding it at high points further south. The rays are a deep rose-violet, and the rest of the plant covered with long white hairs. As it lay blooming in the scree close to the summit of the mountain, it had the appearance of a purple flower nestling in a bed of cotton.

By the latter part of August all the river banks were a continuous strawberry bed, a welcome addition to our limited larder, but we never saw a bush of the blueberry (Vaccinium ovaliform) which grows so profusely in the Selkirks. Occasionally we came across the Vaccinium erythrococcum, whose tiny red berries made very tiresome picking, but were very good and toothsome when once gathered.

We found very many plants familiar to us as growing near the railroad, but with limited space I have only jotted down the strangers. It will be seen by this list that they are largely the plants best known as having their habitation in the more northern mountains of the Pacific slope.

We had stolen a march into the meeting grounds of two distinct floral sections, an interesting ground for a botanist who has time in the future to go so far from the beaten way.