A WEEK ON MOUNT WASHINGTON 35 



him to cross the sill before you make up to him 

 with a question. By which route has he come, 

 and what luck has he met with ? Over the Craw- 

 ford path, he answers, and though the season is 

 pretty late, and Alpine plants are mostly out of 

 bloom, he has found some interesting things. 



Two or three of them he cannot name, and he 

 opens the box. His special puzzle is a tiny, up- 

 right-growing plant, thickly set with roundish, 

 crinkled leaves, and bearing a few blossoms so 

 exceedingly small as almost to defy a common 

 pocket-lens. Do you know what it is ? Yes, to 

 your own surprise, you remember, or seem to re- 

 member, and you run upstairs to bring down a 

 Gray's Manual. The plant is Euphrasia (eye- 

 bright), an Alpine variety. It was pointed out 

 to you ten years ago, near the same Crawford 

 path, by the man who knew the Mount Wash- 

 ington flora better than any one else. You recall 

 the time as if it had been yesterday. Your com- 

 panion dropped suddenly upon his knees, eyes 

 to the ground. " What are you looking for ? " 

 you asked ; and he answered " Euphrasia." It 

 is good to see it again. You find it for yourself 

 the next day, it may be, in the Alpine Garden. 



And this other plant, stiffly matted and long 

 past flowering ? Your new acquaintance supposes 

 it to be Diapensia ; and for that you need no 



