GLACIER PARK WILD FLOWERS 87 



come in, and the border will mark the seasons six feet 

 of dog-tooth violets, then six feet of chalice cup, per- 

 haps, then several feet of lupine or tall false forget- 

 me-not, then vetch and pale blue clematis and yellow 

 columbine and purple pentstemon, and so on, even to 

 goldenrod. Sometimes, on the sides of a steep gully 

 where the snow has packed hard and melted very slowly, 

 these belts of bloom will be only a foot or two wide, run- 

 ning all the changes from earliest Spring to late Summer 

 in a space of fifty feet. 



But though when you enter an upland meadow, 

 studded with limber pines (their own reddish pink cones 

 a pretty blossom), and carpeted with white snow- 

 fields bordered with gold, you are first aware of the dog- 

 tooth violets, on closer inspection you find dell after 

 little dell where as many as thirty varieties of plants 

 will be blooming simultaneously. You have passed 

 many others on the wooded trail coming up. Soon, as 

 you leave the timber line and begin to climb those pink 

 and red and purple cliffs which tower over you, you 

 will find that what now looks like naked rock will be a 

 sub-Arctic or Alpine garden, no less lovely of its kind 

 than this incomparable meadow half way between the 

 lowlands and the peak. 



Among the woodland flowers, the arnica is omnipres- 

 ent. There are several varieties, closely allied, and they 

 literally star the woods, for their pretty, yellow, daisy- 

 like petals, with a darker yellow centre, are borne erect 



