164 Flora of Yo Semite. [ ZOE: 
The asters, erigerons and golden rods scarcely occur in the various 
collections, on account of the early dates at which they were made. 
Of the non-shrubby Ericacez, the white Pleuricospora fimbrio- 
- data is found at Wawona; “ pine-drops’’ (Prerospora andromedea) 
and the snow-plant (.Sarcodes sanguinea) at many localities on the 
heights. That this latter plant is not parasitic in the manner of the 
Aphyllons, which are attached to slender rootlets of the host, or of 
Boschniakia, springing directly from tuber-like swellings on roots of 
Manzanita, any one may satisfy himself by careful digging. The 
plant ends in a coralloid mass, very much as do the Corallorhizas, 
and though a recent ingenious attempt has been made to explain 
their growth by means of a contributory mycelium, we fear the au- 
thor would be puzzled to find the “fungoid odor’’ of which he 
speaks on a fresh-dug specimen. The snow-plant is quite as hand- 
some an object when its flowers are dead and dried as in June and 
July, the season of bloom. In an old and vigorous plant there . 
may be found in autumn, well below the surface, surmounting the 
coralloid mass of roots, from one to six cones 2-3 inches in dia- 
meter and of the same bright color as the plant appears above 
ground. These condensed spikes are the shoots of the next year, 
and within them fully formed their flowers may seen, on making 
section. The plant, which is evidently a perennial of long life, bears. 
besides these large buds of the ensuing year any number of smaller 
ones decreasing in size until barely visible. 
The shooting-star (Dodecatheon Meadia) grows in its most ro- 
bust form (var. /afrayi) in Hutchings Meadow. Specimens from 
this locality have scapes two feet long and leaves often fully eight- 
een inches. The capsule opens not through the base of the style, 
but by incomplete circumscission, the style usually remaining at- 
tached to one of the teeth. 
The Sierra primrose (Primula suffrutescens) grows near Echo — 
Lake and in certain localities near the South Dome. Its shining 
tufted leaves and heads of beautiful flowers inspire the wish to 
transplant it to a less inaccessible home, but as it grows often with 
the dwarf but large-flowered Lpilobium obcordatum, in the very = 
margins of perpetual snow, its acclimatization is a matter of serious. 
doubt. The flowers are usually pink or rose-colored, but Mr. C. 
F. Sonne, of Truckee, has collected a form with pure white flowers. 
Indian hemp ( Apocynum cannabinum ) is found in the valley, but 
