MOUNTAIN FLOWERS 271 



A most curious and interesting plant, which grows on high 

 rocky slopes and forms patches upon the ground by means of 

 its rosettes of pale green leaves and decumbent stems. The 

 little yellow flowers are cruciform and inconspicuous, and 

 grow in clusters at the ends of the long slender stalks which 

 spring out from below the central rosettes of leaves, while an 

 irregular circle of outer leaves grows beyond them again. It 

 is the large inflated pods, of a delicate gray-green hue, which 

 give this plant its common name and constitute its greatest 

 attraction. They are really exquisitely quaint, and so unusual 

 as to always attract the notice of the passing traveller. The 

 leaves are spatulate and small. The name Physaria is derived 

 from the Greek, signifying "bellows," and refers to the inflated 

 fruit. 



YELLOW VIOLET 



Viola glabella. Violet Family 



Stems: glabrous, slender, from a short, fleshy, horizontal rhizome. 

 Leaves: radical ones on long petioles, the upper short-petioled, reniform- 

 cordate, crenately toothed. Flowers: bright yellow. 



This is a small plant which blooms close to the ground, and 



is found chiefly at high altitudes. 



" When beechen buds begin to swell, 



And woods the bluebird's warble know, 

 The yellow violet's modest bell 



Peeps from the last year's leaves below." 



Its bright golden flowers are finely pencilled in the centre 

 with black lines, and grow on short slender stalks amid a mass 

 of small roundish leaves. 



YELLOW MELILOT 



Melilotiis officinalis. Pea Family 



Stems: ascending, one to four feet high, branching. Leaves: trifolio- 

 late, petioled, rather distant ; leaflets oblong, serrate, narrowed at the 

 base, rounded at the apex. Flowers : in slender racemes ; standard equal- 

 ling the wings and keel. Not indigenous. 



