172 THE PLANT WORLD. 



Hardly a day now passes but what with its dawn a new flower 

 may be found. The air is filled with sweet odors, the Pines and 

 Spruces exhaling a fragrance that invites one to stay his steps and 

 rest in the cooling shades beneath the wide-spreading branches, and 

 to fill and refill his lungs with the life-giving air, never seeming to 

 get enough. Long strands of Kinnickinnick {ArctostapJiylos tiva-7trsi), 

 the Indian tobacco, with its glossy, green leaves and bright, red 

 berries, are found upon this soft, needle-cushioned ground. 



The Beeflower {Clcouie) grows in a perfect wilderness along 

 the sides of the road, gowned in deep red, pink and white, great 

 bushy heads of blossoms fringed with its long, slim, green seed-pods, 

 raised on a slender stem high from the ground, with its leaves few 

 and far between. The bees are ever busy about this plant extracting 

 a sweetness that one would hardly think possible from a blossom 

 whose fragrance is verily — vile. Pluck a flower and you are sure to 

 throw it away immediately in disgust. A direct opposite to this 

 blossom is the Wild Snowball {Mi?-alnlis), lying in mats flat upon the 

 ground in sandy and moist places, spreading its glossy leaves and 

 balls of snow-white flowers to the day. It is at its best at early morn 

 and in the evening, when its rich and penetrating fragrance fills the 

 air. Its perfume is so overpowering that it is impossible to keep even 

 a single blossom, beautiful as it is, within the room. 



During the day a limp and withered flower that once was white 

 may be noticed blushing into a pinkish color as if ashamed at being 

 discovered in so sad a plight. Curiosity prompts us to take an earlier 

 morning stroll, and we are thereby fully repaid, for behold! the 

 limp blossom of yesterday is a charming flower of translucent 

 purity to-day, and proves to be the Evening Primrose. Its deli- 

 cate petals join together and then spread themselves to their 

 fullest extent ; from its center hang long stamens covered with 

 golden pollen. The flowers vary in size from that of a half- 

 dollar to one whose diameter is nearly six inches across, some 

 of this size having been found in the Ute Pass and up the trail 

 of Pike's Peak. The plant itself is small and the flowers hug the 

 ground, blossoming only for a day, opening with the early dawn, 

 when whole acres of it will, as it seems, suddenly burst into bloom, 

 and during cloudy days remain so nearly the entire day, otherwise 

 partially closing during the brightest and hottest hours of noon, but 

 at the approach of evening once more unfolding its spotless beauty 

 ere it closes and withers and assumes its robe of pink, blushing in its 

 dying state, so that even in death it ma}' retain some of its beauty. 



