66 A SUMMER IN GREENLAND 



One of the most attractive and abundant plants 

 is Pyrola grandiflora (Fig. 26), a species unknown 

 in Britain, but represented in our flora by its near 

 relative the Winter Green : from a rosette of glossy, 

 dark brown leaves the flowering shoot stands erect, 

 bearing a series of wide-open flowers with pinkish 

 white petals. The yellow and light pink flowers 

 of species of Pedicularis^ the genus which includes 

 the Lousewort, crowded on stout stems with rich 

 brown leaves add to the variety of colour. A 

 species of Dryas, Dryas integrifolia, very similar to 

 the British Alpine species, Dryas octopetala, is ex- 

 ceedingly common. The pure white flowers and 

 slender grey-green stems of the Alpine Cerastium 

 (the Alpine Mouse-eared Chickweed), the vivi- 

 parous Polygonum, its tall spikes with terminal 

 clusters of small white flowers overtopping most 

 of its neighbours, groups of blue Harebells, and 

 on sandy beaches the darker sky-blue flowers of 

 Mertemia, several different kinds of Saxifrage, 

 species with shining white flowers on long stalks, 

 and the more compact cushions of Saxifraga op- 

 positifolia, a species common in the Highlands of 

 Scotland and in Arctic lands and reaching an 

 altitude of 17,000 feet in the Himalayas, with a 

 rich display of purple-blue flowers; species of 

 Ranunculus and Potentilla^ and an attractive little 

 Draba allied to the white Vernal Whitlow grass 

 with yellow and white flowers; clumps of yellow 

 Dandelions and Arnicas (Fig. 2 8) : these with many 

 other less showy plants in which brown is the 

 dominant shade all have a share in the general 



