MOUNTAIN FLOWERS 197 



and Scott claimed that 



" The violet in her greenwood bower, 



Where birchen boughs with hazel mingle, 

 May boast lierself the fairest flower 

 In forest glade or copsewood dingle." 



Long before Shakespeare's day, however, the ancient 

 Arabians sang its praise. It was the favourite flower of 

 Mahomet, just as it was that of Napoleon in modern times, 

 and has since become the emblem of the Bonapartists, who 

 still wear it as a token of their devotion to a lost cause, 

 remembering, perhaps, Shakespeare's proverb that 



" Violet is for faithfulness." 



No legitimist in France will ever wear these flowers. 



The Early Blue Violet has five large petals that are hairy 

 at the base, the lower one being marked with a tiny, dark- 

 veined yellowish-white patch on its face, and protruding at 

 the back into a small rounded spur. The leaves are broad 

 and conspicuously veined, many of them being folded inwards 

 when young. 



l\ adunca, or Dog Violet, is a smaller dark purple or white 

 species which grows on dry ground and sends out runners 

 that bear many blossoms. 



MOSS CAMPION 



Sileiie acaulis. Pink Family 



Closely cespitose. one to two inches high. Leaves: linear, crowded. 

 Flowers: small, solitary, subsessile or slightly raised on naked curved 

 peduncles ; calyx narrowly campanulate ; petals purple or white, ob- 

 cordate. 



The Moss Campion will only be found by those who climb 

 to great altitudes, for it always grows near the highest sum- 

 mits of the mountains and has been discovered at the immense 

 elevation of 10,000 feet. It is a dwarf arctic-alpine plant. 



