MOUNTAIN FLOWERS 



125 



the forest should be called after so prosaic an individual as the 

 Governor of New York, and soundly berates Gray for the 

 fault ; but may not Clinton, the man of affairs, statecraft, and 

 finance, have had an artistic side to his character ? May he 

 not have been a true lover of Nature and an ardent admirer 

 of the splendid throng of amazing and mysterious beauties 

 that enrich with the perfume of their presence the land of 

 the alpine flower-fields ? 



I feel that a great honour has been conferred upon me in 

 that I have been permitted to name this lovely plant — Queen- 

 cup. Hitherto it has been nameless in the English language, 

 and it seems to me that no more fitting title could be bestowed 

 upon the Clint onia unijiora^ with its great shining leaves, 

 amongst which are set the pure white chalices of its blossoms, 

 than Queen-cup, — the queen of all the snowy flower-cups of 

 the alpine forests. 



ASPHODEL 



Tqfieldia ghitinosa. Lily Family 



Stems : viscid-pubescent with black glands, bearing two to four leaves 

 near the base. Leaves: basal ones tufted. Flowers: terminal racemes 

 oblong, the upper flowers opening first, becoming longer in fruit; invo- 

 lucral bracts minute, united at the apices, borne just below the flower ; 

 perianth-segments oblong, obtuse, membranous. Fruit: seeds tailed at 

 each end. 



A traveller cannot pick the long spikes of tiny white blos- 

 soms which belong to this plant without at once recognizing 

 its name by the exceedingly sticky and hairy nature of the 

 stems. The Latin designation ghitinosa exactly describes it. 

 The Asphodel grows along the banks of streams and in wet 

 places. See Plate XXXH. 



