182 White to Green and Brown Flowers 



That the oleanders made, — 

 Here in sun, and there in shade. 

 Up, and up, and up we went, 

 While, a spacious azure tent, 

 Arabesqued with morn, the sky- 

 Hung above us radiantly." 



Had the poet who penned these lovely lines referred to 



. . . the creamy blur of white 

 That the rhododendrons made, 



his verses w^ould as fitly have described the finding of the 

 exquisite waxen bells of the Mountain Rhododendron as 

 that of 



" The dreamy blur of pink 

 That the oleanders made," 



for it is on the most inaccessible ledges, and close to the 

 great slopes of eternal snow, that the oblong glossy green 

 leaves of this alpine shrub gleam brightly in the sunshine of 

 the July days, and the slim, stiff, brown stems bear aloft 

 clustering circles of pure w^hite flowers, holding within their 

 chalice-cups the ten pale yellow stamens and the style. The 

 edges of the foliage are slightly wavy, the calyx is five- 

 parted, each division resembling a small leaf, and the corolla 

 is bell-shaped and cut into five rounded lobes. The buds 

 are scaly and cone-like. 



WHITE MOUNTAIN HEATHER 



Bryanthus glanduliflonis. Heath Family 



Stems: rigid, fastigiately branched. Leaves: numerous, crowded, but 

 somewhat spreading, linear-oblong, obtuse, narrowed at the base to a 

 short petiole. Flowers: corolla short-lobed, glabrous. 



The flowers of the White Mountain Heather are like little 

 fat cream-coloured bulbs, with a tiny opening that is lobed. 



