8 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



rich that they look like beds of rainbows, and 

 are visible miles and miles away. 



As early as June one may find the showy Geum 

 glaciale in flower, and the dwarf willows putting 

 forth myriads of fuzzy catkins, to be followed 

 quickly, especially on the dryer ground, by mer- 

 tensia, eritrichium, polemonium, oxytropis, astra- 

 galus, lathyrus, lupinus, myosotis, dodecatheon, 

 . arnica, chrysanthemum, nardosmia, saussurea, 

 senecio, erigeron, matrecaria, caltha, Valeriana, 

 stellaria, Tofieldia, polygonum, papaver, phlox, 

 lychnis, cheiranthus, Linnsea, and a host of dra- 

 bas, saxifrages, and heathworts, with bright stars 

 and bells in glorious profusion, particularly Cassi- 

 ope, Andromeda, ledum, pyrola, and vaccinium, 



— Cassiope the most abundant and beautiful of 

 them all. Many grasses also grow here, and 

 wave fine purple spikes and panicles over the 

 other flowers, — poa, aira, calamagrostis, alope- 

 curus, trisetum, elymus, festuca, glyceria, etc. 

 Even ferns are found thus far north, carefully 

 and comfortably unrolling their precious fronds, 



— aspidium, cystopteris, and woodsia, all grow- 

 ing on a sumptuous bed of mosses and lichens ; 

 not the scaly lichens seen on rails and trees and 

 fallen logs to the southward, but massive, round- 

 headed, finely colored plants like corals, wonder- 

 fully beautiful, worth going round the world to 

 see. I should like to mention all the plant 

 friends I found in a summer's wanderings in 



