APIUL. 45 



few are difficiilt to rear. They can bear the 

 cold spring winds, for their native haunts are 

 the high peaks of the mountains, and the 

 Alps and Pyrenees are made beautiful by their 

 blossoms, which open even on the limits of per- 

 petual snow ; but our winter, with its frosts, 

 injures them, for they have not at all times a 

 thick covering of snow over their roots, and a 

 wet season renders them still more sickly. 

 On their ice-clad regions they bloom unhiu't, 

 and tlie sno\v gradually makes room for their 

 blossoms to show themselves. Mrs. Sigourney 

 has some hues addressed to mountain flowers 

 well suited to them : — ■ 



"Man, who panting toils 

 O'er slippery steeps, or trembling treads the verge 

 Of yawning gulfs, o'er which the headlong plunge 

 Is to eternity, looks shuddering up, 

 And marks ye in your placid loveliness, 

 Fearless yet frail, and clasping his chill hands, 

 Blesses your pencilled beauty ! 'Mid the pomp 

 Of mountain summits rushing on the sky. 

 And chaining the rapt soul in breathless awe, 

 He hows and binds you drooping to his breast, 

 Inlialcs your spirit from the frost-winged gale, 

 And freer dreams of heaven." 



The pyramidal saxifrage {Saxifraga coty- 

 ledon) is by no means an uncommon garden 

 flower, but its large handsome spikes of flowers 

 do not open till June. They ai-e white, spotted 

 with rose colour, and grow on the Pyrenees. 

 The saffron-coloured saxifrage {Saxifraga 

 wutata) with its yellow flowers, requires 

 shelter from the frost, and is among the least 

 hardy of the tribe. It grows wild on the high 

 lands of Switzerland and Italy. 



