White to Green and Brown Flowers 187 



tain marsh. The face of the five white or pnrphsh-pink 

 divisions of the corolla are covered with soft hairs, which 

 give the flowers a dainty feathery appearance, and inside 

 the tube are placed the five stamens, while the style is long 

 and projects beyond them. 



MIST MAIDENS 



RomanzoiUa sitchcnsis. Water-leaf Family 



Stems: slender, scape-like, ascending or spreading. Leaves: round- 

 reniform, three-to-seven lobed on slender petioles. Flowers: in a 

 loose terminal raceme ; corolla funnel-form, the broad lobes rounded. 



One of the most exquisite fragrant alpine plants, that 

 grows ^ 



" Where the sunlight fills the hours, 

 Dissolves the crust, displays the flowers." 



At high altitudes, when the warmth of July has melted 

 the snow and set the flowers free, you will find the creamy 

 blossoms of these Mist Maidens in many a nook amongst 

 the forbidding rocks, their corollas shimmering like pearls 

 in the green setting of their round scalloped leaves. The 

 texture of these flowers is simply marvellous, for they have 

 a bloom upon them so beautiful that it resembles noth- 

 ing less than richest white velvet, while in their centres a 

 few pale yellow stamens give to each blossom a heart of 

 gold. 



Mist Maidens are seldom found below an altitude of 

 6000 feet, and where the cliffs rise bleak and barren, where 

 the ways are ice bound and the rocks are bare, there it is a 

 joy to find this lovely plant snugly ensconced in some tiny 

 cleft that is watered by the melting snows. Only those who 

 have toiled and climbed in search of it can know the full 

 (ielight of its discovery. 



