il8 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part I. 



plant, from three to six inches high. Presently, while admiring 

 the bravery and the beauty of the crimson Saxifrage here, within 

 a few feet of wide beds of snow, that lie on each side of the ridge 

 on which I stand, what appears a giant specimen comes in sight ; 

 the flowers are much larger, so that instead of looking at 

 little cushions made up of a multitude of blooms, I see the 

 individual cup-hke blooms standing boldly up, of much deeper 

 hue, and the leaves also grown large and distinct. It is the ' 

 noble Saxifraga biflora, and I hope nobody will object to my 

 calling it noble when I say that it only grows about half an inch 

 high ! It is raining heavily, and the place is anything rather 

 than cheerful, but it is a very great pleasure to gather this plant 

 here, and also Linaria alpina, more familiar to me, but so beau- 



^^ 



Fig. 74.— A glimpse at the home of the two-flowered Saxifrage. 



tiful here that I can hardly hope to give the reader an idea of it. 

 Many alpine plants are prettier in cultivation than in a wild 

 state, for instance, Polygala Chamabuxus, - which grows here- 

 just venturing out one or two little shoots and flowers at a time. 

 Not so Linaria alpina, which grows and flowers well in sandy 

 soils and moist places at home, and gets so strong that its 

 glaucous leaves form quite a little tuft, almost high enough for 

 an edging plant, but which here shows its rich orange and purple 

 flowers, ■gathered in dense tiny tufts here and there among the 

 stones, without any leaves being perceptible. It is infinitely 

 more lovely here than in cultivation, though its beauty in either 

 case is of the highest order. ' The very dwarf and pretty little 

 Campanula cenisia was abundant among the higher plants its 

 tufts of very hght green growing among the debris. By turning 

 over the stones, plants with good roots could be got out. One 

 solitary tuft of Ranunculus alpestris was met with by the side 

 of a Httle rivulet ; it was a roundish specimen, about six inches 

 in diameter, and quite pretty where " specimens " are rare, and 

 where one thing struggles with another in the grass. 



