104 SPORT IN NORWAY. 
Ranunculus glacialis, called by the peasants ‘rein 
flower,” is a great favourite with it. This beautiful and 
delicate little plant seems to be the advanced guard of 
the flower world towards the regions of perpetual snow. 
It is found on the very edge of the glaciers, and is as 
pale as the melting snow itself. Its bud has a reddish 
tinge, like to that which the rays of the setting sun 
cast over a boundless waste of snow. It is a lovely 
flower to be placed so high up out of ken of the 
civilised world. No insect seeks for honey within its 
corolla; no butterfly ventures up to these ice-bound 
regions. It is peculiarly the reindeer’s flower. They 
will even scrape the snow away with their hoofs to find 
it; and wherever the hunter sees the ‘‘rein flower” 
is untouched, he may take it as a sign that there are no 
deer in the neighbourhood. 
Besides this, the bitter Gentiana lutea, called in 
Thelemarken “ rein sorrel ;’ Dryas octopetala, or “ rein 
grass ;” the Cerastiwm, the Rumex digynus, and the 
buds and leaves of the dwarf birch, Betula nana, 
are eagerly devoured by them. But in winter the rein- 
deer moss is almost their sole food, and of this nature 
has bestowed a plentiful and inexhaustible supply. 
During the winter the herds usually graze only 
where there is snow. The largest and strongest bucks 
go in front, and scrape away the snow with their hoofs ; 
for, beg deprived of their only natural means of 
