230 The Ottawa Naturalist. [March 



shrub with creamy white flowers, and close to the water, sturdy 

 bushes of Labrador Tea, the same as we get in our eastern 

 swamps, the small-leaved mountain variety microphylla of 

 Kalmia glauca and other bog plants. Among flower-laden 

 bushes of the White-flowered Rhododendron, the tall graceful 

 spikes and almost tropical foliage of the False Hellebore 

 {Veratrum viride), were conspicuous, together with bushes of 

 Lonicera involucrata showing both the small yellow twinned 

 blossoms and dark purple berries surrounded by their enlarged 

 claret coloured bracts. Here too Lyall's Larch and Abies 

 lasiocarpa, heavily loaded with their curious cones, drew the 

 attention of the passer by. The striking crimson flowering 

 spikes of the Greenland Lousewort and three other species 

 of the same genus, Pedicularis coniorta, racemosa, and hracteosa, 

 all grew close together on a springy slope, mixed with the 

 graceful white-flowered Grass of Parnassus, the large purple 

 daisy-like flowers of Erigeron salsuginosus , Lewis's Mimulus, 

 scented Valerians, golden Buttercups, Arnicas and Cinquefoils. 

 Higher up the slope were seen beds of Alpine Asters, Golden 

 Ragworts, some of the smaller Fleabanes and showy Pent- 

 stemons, all of which added their quota to this scene of beauty. 

 The feathery seed heads of the beautiful Western Anemone 

 {Anemone occidentalis), stood well up above the low grasses 

 and sedges. Higher up the mountain side we found in per- 

 fection the handsome white cup-like flowers of the same plant, 

 and higher still nearer the snow, the young buds lying like 

 white satin buttons close to the ground. With these were also 

 the pretty blue tinged flowers of Drummond's Anemone and 

 hosts of other alpine flowers too numerous even to mention. 

 A word, however, must be said of the beds of mountain heather 

 which are such a charm to all visitors to the mountains. These 

 are of three colours and although they are not true heathers, they 

 belong to the same natural order, the Heath family. The most 

 beautiful is the red-flowered heather, Bryanthus empefriformis, 

 then the white, Cassiope mertensiana, which grows on St. Piran 

 in wonderful beauty. An interesting but less showy plant is 

 Phyllodoce glandulifora which has clusters of greenish white 

 flowers. Right on the bleak summits of these mountains large 

 patches of the lovely little Moss Campion, Silene acaulis, are 

 to be found. This little plant consists of numerous stems all 

 bunched close together like a tuft of moss. The annual growth 

 consists merely of half a dozen leaves and one large flower at 

 the tip of each little stemlet, giving the whole tuft the appearance 

 of a green cushion thickly studded with rosy pink blossoms. 



As we left the Lakes of the Clouds and went down the 



