94 GREEN TRAILS AND UPLAND PASTURES 



bewhiskered appearance. The foliage is thick and hand- 

 some, and the plant has an odour, though not a pleasant 

 one. 



But 'the real gem of the Arctic summits is the moss 

 campion. This exquisite and gay little pink, its blos- 

 soms like innumerable petalled pinheads in a green 

 cushion, braves the loftiest altitudes and caps the most 

 stupendous precipices. It must make fodder for the 

 mountain sheep and goats, and it certainly brings joy to 

 the heart of the climber. Often, under the shelter of a 

 rock, or even in the hollow on top of a rock, you will 

 find a dwarf garden of such dainty charm that you have 

 to kneel beside it and admire. There will be, first, a 

 cushion of moss campion two or three feet across, a 

 pretty swell of soft green velvet covered with the pink 

 blossoms. Then, growing around it, even out of it, will 

 be a plant or two of sky-blue forget-me-not, perhaps 

 some pale mauve Alpine vetch, and, if the altitude is 

 not too great, the slender stalk of the green lily (zygad- 

 enus elegans], with its many small, roundish, cream- 

 white flowers splashed with green. Indeed, it is not 

 impossible, again if the altitude is not too great, that 

 there will be a shooting star (dodecatheon pauciftorum) 

 in the garden a strange, vivid little red flower spitting 

 down its pointed yellow nose toward the earth again. 

 Certainly, on the surrounding rocks there will be coloured 

 lichens and tiny stonecrop. Such a garden is unknown 

 on the only sub-Arctic summits of the East the Presi- 



