46 
FLORA OF MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK. 
flowers of a purplish yellow color in an umbel with short flower 
stalks and thick oblong leaves. Polygonum newberryi belongs to 
the same family as the above. It may be known by its somewhat 
prostrate habit, rather fleshy ovate leaves, and small greenish flowers. 
On the storm-swept peaks and ridges in the crevices of the rock 
may be found the tiny lace fern, Cheilanthes gracillima, with its 
numerous thread-like roots securely anchored from the fury of the 
storms. It is seldom more than 3 or 4 inches high. Nature has 
made ample provision for its inclement environment by clothing it 
with a furry woolly garment. It is found on the summit of Pinnacle 
Peak and on Plummer Peak. Sometimes it is found as low as 
Fig. 37.—Lyall’s lupine (Lupinus lyallii). 
Color of flower, bluish purple; height of plant, 2 to 7 inches; blooms July and August. 
Photograph by A. H. Barnes. 
the peaks overlooking the terminal moraines of the glaciers and 
the rocky pinnacles above the road leading from Narada Falls to 
the Nisqually. Its companion plants are the mountain polypody, 
Polypodium hesperium, the kinnikinnik, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi and 
Pentstemon oreopola. Sometimes Phlox diffusa is woven in and out 
among them. A study of any one of these peaks is extremely inter¬ 
esting, whether the student be a botanist or not. 
Competing with LyalTs lupine for first rank as to beauty of foliage 
and brilliancy of flower is Phacelia sericea, an elegant plant of the 
water-leaf family. It may be known by its silvery foliage and 
purplish flowers, stem leafy to the top and leaves pinnately parted 
