96 AVHITE TO GREEN 



blossoms of this Romanzoffia in many a nook amongst the 

 forbidding rocks, its corollas gleaming like shimmering pearls 

 in the green setting of their round scalloped leaves. The tex- 

 ture of these flowers is simply marvellous, for they have a 

 bloom upon them so beautiful that it resembles nothing less 

 than richest white velvet, while in their centres a few pale 

 yellow stamens give to each blossom a heart of gold. 



Romanzofiha is 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 delight of its discovery. 



WHITE LOUSEWORT 



Pedicularis raceinosa. Figwort Family 



Stems: glabrous, leafy to the top. Leaves: all cauline, lanceolate, un- 

 divided, finely serrulate. Flowers: few, in short leafy racemes; calyx 

 oblique, deeper cleft before than behind, the lobes abruptly acuminate; 

 galea produced into an incurved beak, nearly as long as the broad lower 

 lip, hamate-deflexed. 



The dull white or very pale yellow beaked flowers of the 

 White Lousewort are set in a close cluster at the top of the 

 stalks, and are embedded amongst small deeply-fringed leaves. 



The repellent common name of this plant is derived directly 

 from the Latin one, which was bestowed upon it because once 

 upon a time farmers believed that when their flocks fed upon 

 these flowers the sheep were liable to be attacked by certain 

 tiny lice, called pcdiciilus. 



Four species of Lousewort grow in the mountain regions, 

 two of which will be found in the Pink to Red Section of 

 this book, while a fourth one is Pedicidaris contorta, or Con- 

 torted Lousewort, a plant very like P. raceinosa, but having 

 its cream-coloured flowers set singly all the way up on the 



