272 Blue to Purple Flowers 



" Bine were her eyes as the fairy flax," 



wrote Longfellow, and if you once see the wonderful blue 

 of these blossoms you will well understand the compliment 

 intended, for they are a marvellous colour, and so frail and 

 translucent that they wither at a single touch, while the deli- 

 cately veined petals fall almost as soon as they develop into 

 the perfect flowers ; the stems, on the contrary, though slim, 

 are remarkably tough. A really blue flower is a rarity in 

 the mountains. There are many mauves, heliotropes, vio- 

 lets, purples, and lilacs, but few true blues. 



The word linum comes from the Celtic word lin, mean-* 

 ing " thread," and from it also is derived the English word 

 " linen," together with all its variations. The seeds of the 

 Flax contain oil. 



CROWBERRY 

 Empetrum nigrum. Crowberry Family 



Much branched, the branches spreading, densely leafy. Leaves: 

 linear-oblong, crowded, thick, obtuse, the strongly revolute margins 

 roughish. Flowers: very small, purplish, solitary in the upper axils; 

 sepals and petals mostly three. Fruit: a black drupe, containing six to 

 nine nutlets. 



This black-berried herbaceous shrub resembles a Heath, 



and grows in large dense mats on the mountain sides at 



high altitudes. The numerous short branches are thickly 



covered with tiny narrow leaves ; the purplish flowers are 



inconspicuous, and the berries, which are large, round, and 



of a dull black colour, are a favourite fruit with the alpine 



birds. 



EARLY VIOLET 



Viola nephrophylla. Violet Family 



Acaulescent. Rootstocks short and thick. Leaves: long-petioled, 

 cordate, with a broad sinus, the early ones reniform, the latter one§ 



