PART I.] NOTES OF A JOURNEY IN THE ALPS 123 



A very pretty dwarf Phyteuma, with blue heads, was found 

 on the rocks here, and as we got down the mountain, Geum 

 montanum, with its large yellow flowers, gilded the grass 

 somewhat after the fashion of our Buttercups, and the fine 

 Saxifraga Cotyledon was also coming on ; one plant found had a 

 rosette of leaves 8 inches across. Pyrethrum alpinum here 

 takes the place of the Daisy, and is full of flower. The Arnica 

 is in great abundance, and very luxuriant, looking like a small 

 single Sunflower. Silene acaulis is everywhere, and no descrip- 

 tion can convey an idea of the dense way in which its flowers 

 are produced. Starved between chinks, its cushions are as 



A Glacier. 



smooth as velvet, 1 inch high though perhaps a hundred years 

 of age so firm that they resist the pressure of the finger, and 

 so densely covered with bright rosy flowers that the green 

 is totally eclipsed in many specimens. These flowers barely 

 rise above the level of the diminutive leaves. 



