170 THE PLANT WORLD 



On Lonely Rocks and Sand-Edged 



Bluffs. 



By Mrs. A. E. Goetting. 



All through the middle valley of the Wisconsin stand high, precip- 

 itous rocks with their sandstone sides and bases worn into cracks, crev- 

 ices and chasms by the surgings of prehistoric waters or the grindings of 

 glacial ice. These rocks often stand out alone on the prairie, but oftener 

 in groups cut off in ages past from the surrounding bluffs. So many arms 

 and points are thrown out from the rocky highlands that innumerable are 

 the pockets found nestling between these ancient capes and peninsulas. 



Though it be delightful to sit on some shelving ledge and picture the 

 sea-mosses and weeds that once animated these little coves, it is far more 

 so to study from day to day the multiple forms with which nature now 

 covers these old sea-walls and ocean beds. Seeds of Jack-pines, dropped 

 in colonial days by blue-jay or crow, sprouted and grew on the very 

 summits of these "earth-born castles," and now, spite of past winds, 

 heats and droughts, they stand with bent, scraggy forms and denuded 

 tops athwart the sky. Their famished roots in search of food and mois- 

 ture have locked and interlocked in their wanderings downward through 

 cracks and crevices till often they make a natural ladder upon which the 

 daring climber mounts to the top. 



On the sloping sides and shelving tablelands the lower pines mingle 

 their dark hues with those of the stunted oaks and graceful birches, while 

 beneath them their needles form resinous mats upon the oaken-leaved 

 carpet, delightful to scent but treacherous to step upon. The southern 

 exposures are bold, dry, and naked, but on the north the loose sand is 

 enriched by a thin coating of leaf -mold, which is taken full possession of 

 by a great variety of stocky runners and creepers, many of them being 

 evergreen. 



Here the graceful bearberry (^Ardostaphylos) , with its small shining 

 leaves, nestles in patches, often throwing out sprays a yard long before 

 rooting, and in early June it is adorned with the waxen, pink, urn-shaped 

 blossoms so common to members of the Heath family. This creeper 

 grows sparingly on the rocky bluffs, but it runs rampant on northern 

 sand-barrens and in piney woods, being far more beautiful than that found 

 growing on the Rocky Mountains. But while in Wisconsin its praises 

 are yet to be sung, in Colorado it is famous as the Kinikinick, made 

 world-renowned by the pen of H. H.; and yearly the tourists go into 

 raptures over its glossy sprays as they see it decking the mountain 

 hermitage of her who was once its lover. The Kinikinick of the West 

 has few associates, but in Wisconsin it must vie with a dozen other 



