Summer Flowers of the High Alps

The Cold Milk-Vetch or Mountain-lentil—to give a literal translation to its popular Swiss name, for it has no English—is a typical Alpine plant, found in fair abundance between 5000 and 8000 feet, perhaps most frequently in limestone districts. In rocky places or mountain meadows it often grows in profusion, but it seems to avoid the pastures. The stem is usually unbranched, about 6 or 8 inches high, and bears the pale yellow or cream-coloured flowers and the bright green leaves, made up of four or five pairs of leaflets with an odd one at the tip. The leaves are arranged in pairs opposite to one another, and where they join the stem a couple of pale broad wing-like stipules are attached. It is unfortunate that these are not well seen in the photograph, for they are the most characteristic thing about the plant. The Cold Mountain-lentil has an extensive range, being found in mountain districts all over Europe, Northern Asia, North America, and in the Arctic regions. It is thought to have originated in the Steppes of Northern Asia.

Phaca alpina differs from the above in being a somewhat taller plant with branched stem, deeper yellow flowers, leaves made up of nine to eleven pairs of leaflets, and smaller, narrower, stipules.