MOUNTAIN FLOWERS 85 



The beautiful white mountain Heath grows abundantly at 

 high altitudes and is much prized by travellers. Its branches 

 appear four-sided by reason of the manner in which the tiny 

 leaves grow on them, and from these branches slender stalks 

 are sent forth bearing at their tips waxen nodding bells, each 

 composed of a five-lobed corolla with a small green calyx. 



" Meek dwellers mid yon terror-stricken cliffs, 

 With brows so pure, and incense-breathing lips. 

 Whence are ye ? Did some white-winged messenger, 

 On Mercy's missions, trust your timid germ. 

 To the cold cradle of eternal snows; 

 Or, breathing on the callous icicles, 

 Bid them with tear-drops nurse ye ? " 



WHITE FALSE HEATHER 



Bryaiithus glaridulijlorus. Heath Family 



Stems: rigid, fastigiately branched. Leaves: numerous, crowded, but 

 somewhat spreading, linear-oblong, obtuse, narrowed at the base to a 

 short petiole. Flowers : corolla short-lobed, glabrous. 



The flowers of the White Heather are like little fat cream- 

 coloured bulbs, with a tiny opening that is lobed. Its leaves 

 are longer and more spreading than those of the Heath, near 

 which it usually grows. 



GREEN-FLOWERED WINTERGREEN 



Pyrola chlorantha. Heath Family 



Stems: three-to-ten flowered. Leaves: small, orbicular, coriaceous, not 

 shining. Flowers: nodding; calyx-lobes short, ovate, acute; petals very 

 obtuse ; stamens declined ; anthers distinctly contracted below the open- 

 ings, with beaked tips ; style declined, and curved upwards towards the 

 apex, longer than the petals. 



This Lily-of -the- Valley -like plant is found ifi the dry woods 

 among the moss, and always in the shade. On a tall, slender, 

 single-bracted stalk grow numerous little nodding greenish- 

 white bells, five-lobed, with yellow-brown stamens and a long, 



