272 YELLOW TO ORANGE 



The Yellow Melilot, or Sweet Clover, closely resembles the 

 White Sweet Clover. It has spike-like racemes of tiny clus- 

 tered flowers, which are very fragrant and extremely delicate 

 both in shape and hue, and are borne on tall branching stems, 

 which frequently attain a height of three or even four feet. 

 The leaves are trifoliolate and smell very sweet when dried. 

 They droop in a peculiar fashion at night-time, the upper leaflet 

 and one side leaflet closing together, until the vertical surface 

 of each comes in contact with that of the other, while the third 

 leaflet is left alone, exposed to the chills and rains of the 

 hours of darkness. The Yellow Melilot was introduced into 

 this country from Europe. ^ 



LOCO- WEED 



Oxytropis Latnberti. Pea Family 



Silky-pubescent with appressed hairs, acaulescent, tufted. Leaves: 

 odd-pinnate ; leaflets linear, oblong, acute ; peduncles longer than the 

 leaves. Flowers: in large dense heads, or spikes. Fruit: pods incompletely 

 two-celled, coriaceous, sessile, erect, ovoid-cylindric, long-acuminate. 



A handsome rich cream-coloured or yellowish species of 

 Oxytropis, with soft whitish silky foliage and very fine large 

 flower-spikes. It usually grows on the dry alpine meadows. 



DRUMMOND'S DRYAS 



Dryas Druj)iinondii. Rose Family 



Low, tufted, herbaceous shrubs. Stems: woody at the base. Leaves: 

 oval, crenate-dentate, green and glabrous above, white-canescent beneath. 

 Flowers: yellow, solitary; calyx persistent, its tube concave, hirsute 

 lobed ; petals numerous ; style elongated and plumose in fruit. 



This insignificant little yellow flower, which meekly droops 

 its head as if conscious of its lack of good looks, has the most 

 lovely plumose seed-heads imaginable ; and there are few 

 prettier sights in the mountains than that of some low-lying 



