FLORA OF THE MOUNTAIN. 247 



ing to find tlieir proper life -medium in the cool fresh 

 air of elevated districts, and withering when removed from 

 those regions. The vernal flowers are numerous in this 

 range of heights, and to be known and enjoyed in all their 

 sweetness, must be seen and studied in their native haunts. 

 The snows have scarcely disappeared before the first plants 

 put forth their leaves and delicate petals upon the cold, raw 

 air, and are especially prized and hailed with joy by the 

 botanist as the prophets of the coming world of life. And 

 first in rocky nooks and dripping springs, creep out, as if 

 fearful that the winter winds might return, the Saxifrages, 

 Draba, Heuchera, Hepatica, and Caltha, or Marsh Marigold, 

 in quick succession. Then follow the Wind Flowers, the Wake 

 Robin, the Spring beauty, or Claytonia, Houstonia, and 

 Columbine, Sanguinaria, Bellwort, Corydalis, and Erythro- 

 niurn ; mingled with these are delicate violets of almost 

 every hue, and of which numerous and petted family the 

 mountain has many representatives. 



The little humble earth-gem " Mitchella," soon dots the 

 green surface with its minute snow-white twin flowers, and 

 the lovely Epigaea, with its graceful trailing stem, and foliage 

 like painted parchment hiding clusters of delicate flowers with 

 faint but delightful ordor, is soon found creeping among the 

 dead and fallen leaves as if to conceal its beauty and sweetness, 

 and give it all to the earth upon whose bosom it clings 

 so closely. More showy plants soon flash out their light 

 upon the air, as flaming Phloxes, Cardinal Lobelias, the 

 Epilobium, or Great Willow Herb, with wand of showy 

 flowers, the proud Lily, and fanciful Orchidea3, among which 

 are the imperial purple-fringed Platanthera, with eccentric 

 and anomalous Cypripedium, or Lady's Slipper, the bizarre 

 form of which remarkable flower is the perpetual joke of 

 the woods, a shape so odd, fantastic, and unexpected, that 

 one asks if it were not created in derision. The mountain's 

 show of summer and autumnal flowers is equally exten- 

 sive and beautiful. As the summer, or sun months, are a 

 short season on the mountain, this world of plants seem to 



