WHITE HEATHER (Casswpe Mertensiana, Don.)- Flowers 

 white, or pale pink, bell-shaped, like those of Lily-of- the- valley, 

 solitary and nodding, on erect, naked peduncles rising from the 

 axils of the leaves. Leaves about | inch long, boat-shaped, 

 and overlapping one another in the manner of scales, in four 

 ranks upon the branches, which rise barely a foot above the 

 ground. 



This odd, little plant with slender, creeping stems that sug- 

 gest a Club-moss in their habit, is found blooming in summer 

 among the rocks of the higher altitudes of the Sierra Nevada 

 near timber line, from the Yosemite region northward. It 

 was the favorite flower of John Muir, whose writings contain 

 many references to it his "lowly, hardy, adventurous Cassi- 

 ope." Its tangled beds make a notable feature in alpine mead- 

 ows and on the borders of glacier lakes upon the crest of the 

 Sierra northward along the Cascades of Oregon, Washington, 

 and British Columbia to far-off Alaska. It is found usually 

 at slightly higher elevations than Bryanthus. 



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