218 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL 



It was when we had passed the timber line at about 

 11,500 feet elevation, and had entered the bare rocky 

 valley at the head of which rises the snow-flecked summit 

 of Gray's Peak, that we discovered some of the chief gems 

 of the alpine flora of the Rocky Mountains. Along the 

 borders of the stream, fed by the still melting snows and 

 with its roots in the water, were fine clumps of the hand- 

 somest American primrose {Primula Parryi), its whorled 

 flowers of a crimson-purple colour with a yellow eye re- 

 sembling in general appearance the well-known Japanese 

 primrose of our gardens. Among the stony debris and 

 loose boulders which bordered the stream the beautiful 

 Phacelia sericea was abundant, its violet-blue flowers groov- 

 ing in dense clusters and producing a charming effect 

 among its desert surroundings. This is a typical American 

 plant, since not only is the genus a peculiar one but the 

 natural order to which it belongs — the Hydrophyllacese — is 

 almost confined to that continent. The beautiful nemo- 

 philas of our gardens belong to the same family. In boggy 

 places the handsome Greenland lousewort, an Arctic 

 species, was plentiful, and in rocky crevices we found the 

 moss campion (Silene acmolis), which is abundant on the 

 Scotch and Welsh mountains. 



The next morning we fortunately determined to explore 

 a lateral valley called Grizzly Gulch, which diverged to 

 the north a mile above the hotel and led into a fine 

 upland valley on the north side of Gray's Peak. Here, 

 just below the timber-line, we found a miner's house, and 

 the two miners who had come home to dinner invited us 

 to join them, and then offered to show us a fine place for 

 flowers. They took us through the wood for half a mile, 

 when we came upon a rocky and grassy slope with great 

 snow-patches in the shady hollows, and the ground which 

 the snow had left was literally starred with flowers. 

 Leaving us to go to their work in a mine on the steep 

 side of the mountain, we luxuriated in the finest Alpine 

 flower-garden we had yet seen, although my friend had 

 visited the mountains several times. What first attracted 

 our notice were three plants of the crowsfoot family, which 

 grew intermingled on a grassy slope almost surrounded by 



