March, 1907 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



would be bleak and barren. Most common among these is 

 the great mountain anemone, with rigici white petals and 

 lavender-tinted heart. Its leaves are punctured with a fern- 

 like tracery, and so early does it come that it touches the 

 melting snow banks, and sometimes is completely surrounded 

 by the cold, white blanket. But the morrow's sun always 

 sees the folded bud opening toward the sky. Late in the 

 season it sends forth great tufted bunches of seeds whose 

 tasseled heads wave several feet above the ground. The 

 delight of gathering such flowers in a world apart, in a soli- 

 tude among the eternal hills, is enhanced when one remem- 

 bers that every spot in these towering Rockies has its char- 

 acteristic plants, according to the nature of the ground, 

 its exposure and altitude, and that many choice specimens 

 can be transplanted. For instance on the trail leading from 

 the chalet at Lake Louise, one may find yellow violets and 

 fragrant lady's tresses growing on the low shores wet from 

 the cold springs underneath; and a little further on the same 

 easy trail is bordered by the scrub birch, whose long black 

 catkins can be seen some distance away. 



Many an unnamed flower can the botanist find in these 

 secluded trails, either on flower-bedecked meadow or on the 

 winding pathway that skirts some dark, forbidding canon. 

 Sometimes the bluebells peep from banks of ferns, and in 

 other spots the gentians bloom in sheltered nooks or around 

 some mountain-girt pool, ready to be plucked by the intrepid 

 mountain climber. A tangle of heather-like plants dot the 

 mountain sides, but so far no Swiss edelweiss has been found, 

 though conditions are much as in Switzerland. Instead are 

 the antennaria and bryanthus, the last with purple blossoms, 

 which grow on the high reaches of the tallest mountains. By 

 the side of the most frequented trails and wagon roads can be 

 plucked the greenest orchids and red-tinted laurel, while in the 

 retirement of the leafy forests the white-flowered rhododen- 

 dron grows with its bell-shaped flowers which cluster in huge 

 bunches in July. No matter how lonely the surroundings, 

 these flowers cheer the pathways as they sway in the breeze. 



On the rich black loam of these secluded trails thrive the 

 scarlet painted-cup and the magenta-hued epilobium. So 

 plentiful is this last that it makes a riot of color especially 

 welcome on the burnt-o\-er timber lands where it grows many 

 feet high, adding another touch of beauty to the mountains 

 whose color transformations are exquisite. But the most 

 charming of all the flowers of the Canadian Rockies to 

 botanist and layman, to the Alpine climber and amateur trail 

 lover, is the yellow erythranium grandifloreum. When the 

 insects and butterflies hover over it, it forms a picture that is 

 never forgotten, not alone because of its beauty, but because 



A Trail Acquaintance 



Indians on the Kootenay Trail 



in its efforts to reach the light it has been known to pierce 

 solid ice four and five inches thick. There are few sensations 

 more delightful than to climb an Alpine trail to the brink 

 of some icy glacier, and see, struggling to peep forth, these 

 beautiful yellow flowers, which in a few days may rise trium- 

 phant from their crystal bed. These flowers may be picked 

 near the Illecillcwaet glacier, but it is worth a much longer 

 climb to gather them. 



One charm about these mountain trails is that so many of 

 the valleys have not been searched for specimens, though bot- 

 anists are at last becoming aware of this new field and some 

 of the plants have been taken to Swiss and German gardens. 

 Far away from the trails what possibilities await the explorer, 

 for every new valley that is opened abounds in specimens? 

 Besides the floral possibilities the Nature lover soon learns 

 to know the trees. He may select the springy balsam boughs 

 for his couch, and when he has counted the rings on the white 



spruce, which often 

 attain the age of six 

 hundred years, he 

 feels he has indeed 

 discovered an anti- 

 quarian. He may 

 pluck the greenish- 

 red flowers of the 

 Douglas fir, which 

 often in British Col- 

 umbia makes a for- 

 est a thousand miles 

 in extent, and may 

 make his camp fire 

 of aspen poplars. If 

 he selects June for 

 his climb he may see 

 the most interesting 

 of all the trees of 

 the high Rockies, 

 the Lyall's larch, 



iCmrlu.lrd an Van 11'!) 



Photographed on the Trail 



