124 White to Green and Brown Flowers 



with short obtuse teeth ; petals Httle exserted, with a broadly-anricled 

 claw, and large, thin quadrate appendages, the flabellate bifid blade with 

 a linear tooth on each side. 



Like many of the Campions, this one is very sticky, and 

 is characterized, in common with other members of the Pink 

 Family, by its slender stems being jointed and the leaves set 

 in pairs at the joints. It gives out a faint sweet odour, and 

 is usually found growing among the stones on steep hill- 

 sides. 



Silcne Lyallii, or Lyall's Catchfly, has spoon-shaped basal 

 leaves and long narrow stem leaves. The white flowers 

 grow on short stalks in loose terminal heads; the inflated 

 calyx has purple-tipped teeth and the petals are spreading 

 and two-lobed. The flowers are sometimes purplish. 



LANCE-LEAVED SPRING BEAUTY 



Claytonia lanceolata. Purslane Family 



Stems: weak, from a tuber. Leaves: few, opposite, oblong. 

 Flowers: in a loose raceme on slender pedicels, nodding, white or pale 

 pink; veins rose; calyx of two ovate sepals; petals five; style three- 

 cleft at apex. 



Close to the snow, in warm wet valleys, when the June 

 sunshine has awakened the alpine world from its winter 

 sleep, you will find the Spring Beauty, and as you stoop to 

 gather it the whole plant (consisting of a tuberous root and 

 one stalk with two leaves upon it and a cluster of blossoms 

 at the top) will inevitably come up in your hand, so easily 

 does it leave the ground. No sooner does this happen than 

 the petals begin to close, the leaves to droop, and the stem 

 to grow limp. Ten minutes afterwards the flower is hope- 

 lessly wilted. Whether white or delicate pink, the Spring 

 Beauty is always veined with bright rose colour. There 

 are few more exquisite wild blossoms on this continent than 



