Glacier National Park; Its Trails and Treasures (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 Excerpt: ...and at Granite Park whole acres are covered with red false heather, which is really a low branching flowering shrub. It grows, much branched from the base, from six to twelve inches high. The linear leaves are often one-half inch long with thick rough margins. The lovely little fragrant rose-coloured flowers with broad-spreading lobes hang nodding on small pedicels at the ends of the stems. Vetches: The vetches may be found throughout the Park during most of the season. Great similarity is noticeable in the different varieties, in that they are herbs or vines with an abundance of alternate compound leaves carrying from fifteen to twentyfive leaflets on the main stem. All the varieties have flowers growing in dense spikes. Like others of the pea family each individual flower is formed of five irregular petals, the keel being formed of the two lower ones united; the wings of the two side ones; and the standard turned backward, being formed of the upper one. In colouring the vetches are yellow, blue, purple, or white. The ascending vetch, which is the most frequently seen, and the purple vetch (differing only in leaves) make great purple spots in the green about Glacier Park Hotel, Two Medicine Valley, and along the Automobile Highway. In rather shaded places along the Cut Bank road and St. Mary's region, and again at much higher altitudes near Morning Eagle Falls, grow the daintiest of vetches of a pale-blue colour, called the Alpine milk vetches. Spirea: Most noticeable in the bright sunlight on Gunsight Trail, Swift Current and Iceberg Lake Trails is the flower of a small shrub called the spirea. The fragrant blossom, which is white and tinged with pink, grows in large fluffy flower heads. The red woody stems bear smooth ovalshaped leaves which are dark gre...