ABSTRACT
At Sole we found the river tranquil for the first time since we left Rima. It was flowing swiftly, yet smoothly, in a comparatively wide, flat valley, and there were ricefields right down to the river bank. But the granite mountains behind the village were precipitous. The Pine forest was carpeted with dwarf purple Irises, and flecked with the deliciously scented Stellera chamaejasme, each clump of which throws up a sheaf of green-jacketed stems, each stem capped by a puff of chalk-white flowers. The star-shaped flower is indeed white inside, but outside it may be purple, gamboge, or cinnabar-red; so that the flowers twinkle in a breeze, with quick-changing colours, like a rising constellation. It is well-named Stellera, the starry one.
