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Mount Cook Lily.

I have been induced to give two illustrations of Ranunculus Lyallii, as I find that the flowers vary in size in different localities or lower levels.
I have frequently tried to grow the plants but always observed that the leaves grow smaller and smaller every year until at last they faded away altogether.

Speak to me, mountain hoary,
Tell me thine old world story
The secret of thy birth.
Say in what ages past
Thy giant rocks were cast
Upon this trembling earth.
Did’st thou from atoms rise
To greet the morning skies
A form of strength and might
While earth in darkness reigned
E’er sun or moon had deigned
To shed their wondrous light.