THE PLANT WORLD 127 



quite content until I have been over it. But the old road was an agree- 

 able one, even if lacking the charm of novelty. It led us along the 

 borders of the meadows, and under the shadow of the great pines, where 

 sheets of the purple Howers of a dwarf Phacelia (P. Davifhonii), stained 

 the ground as delicately as sun beams through tinted glass. The 

 rounded clumps of the snow bush {Ceanofhus cordulatiis) were in full 

 bloom, and the bearberries wore as white a robe. 



An early camp was made at the foot of the valley, which here nar- 

 rows to a rocky gorge. It Avas at the head of a meadow, all golden with 

 large buttercups and native dandelions, and here and there thick set 

 with white blossoms of the meadow Lewisia {L. hrachycalyx), or of the 

 almost equally fine Hesperocldron . An abundant little Mimulus glowed 

 in crimson splashes ; only blue was wanting, and that was added at the 

 edges by the beautiful Lupintis Grayi. It was hard to turn from all this 

 beauty to the prosaic task of caring for the specimens which crowded 

 our presses ; but that done, there yet remained time to add to their 

 number. Among the best of our acquisitions here were Sidalceapedata, 

 Pottntilla Wheeler i and Nemoplula sepidta. 



Wood had been very scarce at our other camps, but here it was 

 abundant, and as night came on we heaped the fire with great logs, and 

 lay watching the flames throwing their sparks aloft, and casting strange 

 shadows among the pines ; while on the farther side the horses stretched 

 their tethers to get within the circle of light and heat. 



In the morning we followed up the stream on whose bank we had 

 camped. Now the encroaching hills scarcely left room by its side for 

 the road, and again widening out, they afforded space for little verdant 

 meadows. At last in one of these we reached its source, and climbing 

 the final ridge we were at the summit, at an altitude of 8,000 feet. Here, 

 on those days when the fogs do not hide it, one can catch the far-off 

 glitter of the Pacific, and see, or fancy that he sees, the islands of 

 Santa Catalina and San Clemente. We were not so fortunate, for the 

 horizon was bounded by a bank of fog. 



The road now wound through the mountains, with a gradual descent, 

 which made rapid traveling exhilarating to both men and horses. Now 

 we skirted a ragged gorge, which seemed rent to the heart of the moun- 

 tains, and now splashed through a clear stream ; and once, in a shaded 

 ravine, we crossed a great drift of snow, yet lingering from the winter 

 storms. A noble forest, untouched by man, covered the declivities. The 

 most abundant trees was the yellow pine {Piniis ponderosa), and through 

 it were intermixed a few black pines {P. Jeffrey i), and lofty sugar pines 

 with white firs {Abies concolor) and post cedars. The ridges sustained 

 a growth of big cone pines {P. Coidteri). The only deciduous tree of 

 note was Kellogg's oak, and it was interesting to observe, as we de- 



