24 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
blossoms like drifted snow, and summer duns in 
the parched meadow the drooping of its cowslip- 
gold, far above among the mountains, the silver 
lichen-spots rest, starlike on the stone, and the 
gathering orange-stain upon the edge of yonder 
western peak reflects the sunsets of a thousand 
years.” 
