MOUNTAIN FLOWERS 213 



MOUNTAIN SAXIFRAGE 



Saxifraga oppositifolia. Saxifrage Family 



Stems: prostrate, densely leafy. Leaves: sessile, ovate, nearly orbicu- 

 lar, persistent, keeled, fleshy, opposite or imbricated in four rows, the 

 margins cihate. • Flowers : solitary, nearly sessile; calyx-lobes obtuse, 

 much shorter than the obovate purple petals. 



The simple description of Silene acaulis, or Moss Campion, 

 given on page 197, is applicable in several particulars to this 

 Mountain Saxifrage, which is also a dwarf arctic-alpine flower 

 and only grows at great altitudes. The chief difference 

 between the two plants lies in the leaves, which in the Cam- 

 pion are extremely fine and narrow and in the Saxifrage are 

 egg-shaped and thickish, with a strongly marked keel and 

 hairy margins. The stems of the Saxifrage are prostrate and 

 very leafy, and the flowers are purple and grow almost flat 

 upon the ground. 



It was John Keble who first drew our attention to the fact 

 that they are 



" The loveliest flowers that closest cling to earth." 



It was also evidently to some such prostrate alpine plant as 

 the Mountain Saxifrage that he referred when he wrote : 



" Bloom on then in your shade, contented bloom, 

 Sweet flowers, nor deem yourselves to all unknown. 

 Heaven knows you, by whose gales and dews ye thrive ; 

 They know, who one day for their altered doom 

 Shall thank you, taught by you to abase themselves and live." 



LARGE PURPLE ASTER 



Aster conspicuus. Composite Family 



Stems : stout, rigid. Leaves : ovate, oblong, acute, serrate, veiny. 

 Flowers : in numerous corymbosely cymose heads ; involucre broadly 

 campanulate, its bracts in several series ; rays in a single series, not 

 very numerous ; disk-flowers tubular, perfect. 



