134 ALPINE FLOWERS [PART I. 



Everywhere the large white flowers of the mountain Avens are 

 covering the surface ; but as we are in such rich ground, we 

 had better confine ourselves to plants not British, and climb. 

 That exertion is above all things necessary ; the vast slopes of 

 shattered rock seem interminable an hour's hard work only 

 brings us to a point that we thought we could reach in five 

 minutes, and this point, instead of proving the resting-place 

 and exploring-ground we had expected it to be, merely shows 

 us that still the wide and mighty mass of shattered rock 

 creeps higher and higher, far beyond our powers of approach, 

 until at last the wall of ice, " durable as iron, sets death-like 

 its white teeth against us." On a great ridge beneath it are 

 some scattered fragments of vegetation rooting deeply among 

 the stones, and gaining a scanty subsistence from the sandy 

 grit which results from the decomposition of the fields of 

 brittle rock. The Crimson Eockfoil is a mass of flower; we 

 cannot see anything but flowers on its dense cushions, beautiful 

 in this awful solitude. Here and there a large yellow flower 

 is seen, which proves to be Geum reptans, a fine plant, from 

 3 to 6 inches high. Presently, while admiring the great 

 beauty of the crimson Saxifrage here, within a few feet of wide 

 beds of snow, that lie on each side of the ridge on which we 

 stand, what appears a giant plant comes in sight ; the flowers 

 are much larger, so that instead of little cushions made up of a 

 multitude of blooms, we see the individual cup-like blooms 

 standing boldly up, of much deeper hue, and the leaves also 

 grown large and distinct. It is the noble Saxifraga liflora. 

 It is a pleasure to gather this plant here, and also Linaria 

 alpina, more familiar to me, and so beautiful here. Some alpine 

 plants are prettier in cultivation than in a wild state. Not 

 so Linaria alpina, which grows and flowers well in sandy 

 soils and moist places at home, and gets so strong that its 

 glaucous leaves form quite a strong tuft, but which here shows 

 its rich orange and purple flowers, gathered in dense tiny tufts 

 here and there among the stones, without any leaves being 

 seen, and it is more lovely here than in cultivation, though 

 its beauty in either case is of a high order. The very dwarf 



