GREENLAND FLOWERS 63 



raised plateau, one finds stretches of muddy flats 

 and boggy ground covered with the waving white 

 plumes of the Cotton grass (Eriophorum, Fig. 25), 

 and many other familiar plants; on the drier 

 ground are bright reddish purple patches of a 

 handsome Willowherb closely allied to our common 

 British species, clumps of light yellow Poppies, 

 and darker and more brilliant Dandelions. In both 

 wet and dry situations the bright green feathery 

 stems of the common Horsetail flourish in quantity. 

 The hill-sides are often covered with a thick 

 growth of heath-forming vegetation mixed with 

 stumpy Willows; the leaves of some species of 

 Willow are covered with silvery down and form 

 an attractive background to the numberless cat- 

 kins conspicuous by their bright red colour. 

 Trailing branches of the Dwarf Birch, with smaller 

 and less obvious flowering shoots, a parti-coloured 

 tangle of Lichens, Mosses in different shades of 

 green, and creeping or erect Club-Mosses (species 

 of Lycopodiuni) are characteristic elements in the 

 vegetation. Among the common heath plants are 

 the Bilberry, which in the latter part of the summer 

 provides an abundance of fruits dusted with a 

 blue-grey bloom, the Crowberry, a Rhododendron 

 resembling the Alpine Rose, a species of Ledum, 

 sometimes called Labrador tea, a plant of American 

 origin with dense and fragrant clusters of star-like 

 flowers, Phyllodoce coerulea^ its purple bells re- 

 calling those of our heaths, and an abundance of 

 the beautiful white flowers of Diapensia^ a genus 

 with a wide distribution from Spitsbergen through 



