Yellow to Orange Flowers 325 



traveller forcibly of the narrow gap which lies between the 

 Animal and the Vegetable Kingdoms, for the touch of its 

 fleshy leaves is most repulsive, resembling that of some cold 

 moist body. Fortunately, however, it is redeemed from 

 being entirely objectionable by the twinkling little golden 

 blossoms, which are as healthy and natural in their appear- 

 ance as the foliage is the very reverse. 



" Flower in the crannied wall, 

 I pluck you out of the crannies. 

 I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 

 Little flower — but if. I could understand 

 What you are, root and all, and all in all, 

 I should know what God and man is." 



" No deeper thought was ever uttered by poet," says John 

 Fiske, in his beautiful work, Through Nature to God; '' for 

 in this world of plants, which, with its magician, chloro- 

 phyll, conjuring with sunbeams, is ceaselessly at work 

 bringing life out of death — in this quiet vegetable world 

 we may find the elementary principles of all life in almost 

 visible operation." 



Care must be taken not to confuse the Yellow Saxifrage 

 with the Stonecrop. The former has tiny, thin, ordinary 

 leaves, while the latter has leaves that are thick, fleshy, and 

 very juicy. This peculiar foliage of the Stonecrop enables 

 it to retain a cjuantity of moisture during the dry season, 

 an attribute which proves extremely useful, since it grows 

 in crevices and crannies between the rocks, where the sparse 

 dry soil affords little or no sustenance to the roots ; hence 

 its ability to imbibe and retain moisture through its leaves 

 renders it fit to flourish on these sandy and stony slopes. 



