MOUNTAIN FLOWERS 



319 



sets the flowers free. At high altitudes you will often see 

 numbers of pale green pointed leaves forcing their way up 

 through the soft covering, and myriads of bright yellow blos- 

 soms rising but a few inches above the thin carpet of frozen 

 crystals. From between two or three of these large leaves 

 (somewhat like those of the Lily-of-the-Valley) springs the 

 slender stalk, which terminates in a single bud, or occasion- 

 ally in a small raceme of drooping golden bells. Soon the 

 six pointed segments of the perianth unfold and expand, 

 gradually rolling backwards until they become completely 

 recurved, leaving the whole length of the stamens exposed. 

 These segments, or floral leaves, are an exquisite shade of 

 yellow, softening to cream colour at the base in the centre. 

 The style bears at its summit a deeply three-cleft stigma, 

 each division thereof being also recurved. 

 ■ Great colonies of Yellow Adder's Tongues grow in the 

 mountains, where their faint fragrance scents the air with a 

 delicious perfume. Late at evening, when beneath the star- 

 sown purple of the sky you return from making some alpine 

 ascent, the pure flames of these wild Lilies gleam in their 

 leafy setting with a pale golden light, and illuminate the green 

 brink of your path ; and when the noonday is glorified, and 

 the flag of the sun floats top-masted in the skies, then 



" You see gems in yellow 

 Nodding, each one, to his fellow, 

 Strewing all the country lanes 

 With divinely builded fanes, 

 Where the benisons are breathed but never spoken," 



