46 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOEEST. 



wanting, the land rises and sinks in gradual declivities, 

 and prospects are difficult to be obtained except from 

 lofty elevations. 



There is so much that is attractive in the abruptness 

 of a rocky landscape, especially when covered with 

 trees and other vegetation, that many authors have at- 

 tributed their picturesque character to this rudeness and 

 abruptness. I am inclined, on the other hand, to at- 

 tribute this interesting expression to the manifest facility 

 which these abrupt situations afford, not only for pros- 

 pect, but also for pleasant secluded retreats. Large 

 clefts, produced by the parting of the two sides of an 

 enormous rock, furnish dells, often in themselves perfect 

 gardens of wild flowers, bursting on the sight like an 

 oasis in the middle of a rude waste. In these places 

 there is always a remarkable verdure, as the rains that 

 wash down their slopes conduct fertility to the soil at 

 their base. A rocky landscape is always productive of 

 a greater variety of flowers and shrubs than a plain or 

 rolling country of similar soil and climate. 



There are many pk\nts whose native localities are the 

 tops and sides of rocky cliffs and precipices. Such are 

 the saxifrage, the cistus, the toad-flax, and the beautiful 

 pedate violet. The graceful Canadian columbine is 

 found mostly among the clefts of rocks, where, like a 

 little tender animal, it nestles under their protection, 

 and draws nourishment from the soil that has accumu- 

 lated about the mossy knolls where it has taken root. 

 To satisfy ourselves of the number and variety of plants 

 that may grow spontaneously upon a single rock, let us 

 construct one in fancy, thus enamelled by the hand of 

 nature. 



We will picture to ourselves a craggy precipice rising 

 thirty or forty feet out of a wet meadow, and forming, 



