SUBALPINE LUPINE (_Lupinus subalpinus_). Early in July the mountain meadows become ornamented with large patches of this blue-flowered plant. Its flowers are the shape of pea blossoms. Lupine can be identified by the leaf, which consists of many leaflets radiating from a central point like the spokes of a wheel. This lupine is a leafy plant 8 to 24 inches high. LYALL LUPINE (_Lupinus lyallii_). This small lupine grows in dry, rocky soil at higher elevations, mostly above timberline in the Arctic-Alpine zone. Its small, but typically lupine, leaves are hairy and spread out to form a rosette. The blue flowers, in many short, compact spikes, usually are spread in rosette manner. [Illustration: SUBALPINE LUPINE.] AVALANCHE LILY (_Erythronium montanum_) is a white lily, with a yellow center, abundant in early summer on mountain meadows and in woods near timberline. GLACIER LILY (_Erythronium grandiflorum_). This plant is similar, except that the flowers are yellow and slightly smaller. It blooms earlier than its white counterpart and one must look for it where the snow is melting. Both the avalanche and glacier lilies have two basal leaves. [Illustration: MAGENTA PAINTBRUSH.] SCARLET PAINTBRUSH (_Castilleja miniata_). The brilliant color of this plant is not in its flowers, which are hidden, but in the leafy bracts that surround them. One can imagine that the “flowers” are brushes dipped in scarlet paint and then turned upward. MAGENTA PAINTBRUSH (_Castilleja oreopola_) is similar to the scarlet paintbrush, except in color. [Illustration: AVALANCHE LILY.] [Illustration: TIGER LILY.] OWLCLOVER (_Orthocarpus imbricatus_) is a relative of the paintbrushes; it may be incorrectly identified as one of them. The “flower” is magenta-colored, but it differs from that of the paintbrush in being compact and nearly ball-like. Each plant has only one flower stalk, while paintbrush usually has more than one. Paintbrush and owlclover bloom in the mountain meadows in midsummer. TIGER LILY (_Lilium columbianum_) is a tall, leafy plant of the rich meadows that bears from two to many large, orange, brown-spotted flowers. On the lowland meadows the flowers appear in May, but in the meadows of the Hudsonian zone, they do not bloom until July. MOUNTAIN BUCKWHEAT (_Polygonum bistortoides_). Although this flower is not especially attractive, its abundance in mountain meadows gives it importance among the common plants of the park. It grows thickly among grasses and sedges, is 10 to 20 inches tall, and in July and August bears a compact, oblong spike of white flowers at the top of the slender stem. SPREADING PHLOX (_Phlox diffusa_) is a prickly, mosslike plant that forms cushions or mats on dry, gravelly slopes above timberline. In early summer, it bears numerous, small, white-to-lavender flowers close to the foliage. Entire hillsides may be covered with a patchwork of this hardy alpine plant.