THE PLANT WORLD 171 



aspirants for the place of honor ; perhaps for this very reason its beauty- 

 has been overlooked. Like all this class of wildings, it refuses to flourish 

 out of its haunts. 



Trailing and erect ground-pines and cedars (Lycopodiums and Selag- 

 inellas) crowd their stems above, and underground stems and rootlets 

 below, but the erect, overshadowing stems of the Prince's pine or pipsis- 

 siwa ^Chimaphila) outdo in size, shape, and gloss the oval leaves of the 

 bearberry. The creeping pines and cedars, belonging to lower forms of 

 vegetation (club mosses), have no flowers on sides or tips, only yellow 

 masses of spore gold ; but the Prince wears in June his crown of five or 

 more drooping jewels, star-like in shape, waxen in texture, and roseate 

 in hue. What wonder then that the tiny bells of the Kinikinick ring in 

 vain its owner's praises ! 



The stocky wintergreens i^Gaidtheria) , too, are here, and, nothing 

 daunted, plow their underground stems readily among the other creepers, 

 throwing up from their axils tufts of three to five aromatic evergreen 

 leaves. This plant often sports fruit and flower at the same time. 



The false wintergreen (^Pyrola), the chickweed wintergreen (^Trien- 

 talis), and the dwarf cornel {.Cormcs Canadeyisis) join a host of ferns in the 

 general push for earth and air. 



On the upper reaches the large pink lady's-slipper (^Cypripediiim can- 

 diduvi) may sometimes be found in May, while near the foot many other 

 orchids hide. With so many pushing, energetic, racing plants can there 

 be room for other beauties? Oh, yes ! for rootlets love to crowd, and 

 then, too, as the season advances, some plants die down, to be quickly 

 followed by other growths. 



Mosses : What may be said about the countless mosses that velvet 

 these slopes and nestle in loving warmth around the plants of higher 

 life? Bush-like bunches of white, gray, and sea-green lichens blend 

 their softening hues among the yellow and myrtle greens of the true 

 mosses, and often little patches of rattlesnake plantain iGoodyera) add 

 their satin sheens to these never-fading tints of the hillside. The rocks 

 projecting at all angles from the parent bluff give tints of gray, toned 

 down by rock lichens and brown and green plates of the true liverworts. 

 In the crevices and on the edges of overhanging rocks creep the wiry 

 brown rootstocks of the sturdy little poly pods, which watch with their 

 countless brown eyes the melting snows, foretelling the coming of spring's 

 queen . 



From the Baraboo bluffs northward to Superior, the trailing arbutus of 

 Pilgrim fame makes its home, becoming more luxuriant in its growth 

 and more plebeian in its ways as it creeps nearer the Arctic ; but here in 

 its southern limits it is shy and seeks only favored localities. 



Trailing arbutus. Queen of May ! I will seek thee where thy gar- 



