PARRY — ASCENT OF PIKE'S PEAK. 123 



The surface is here covered with a rank growth of grass and 

 scattering pine timber. Sweeping fires, which had passed 

 over nearly this entire region of country, occasioned the de- 

 struction of the principal pine growth, which, with its dry, 

 naked trunks, gave a somewhat forbidding aspect to the more 

 open scenery. In the moist lower portions of the valley, the 

 fallen timber unites with a matted growth of sub-alpine wil- 

 lows, rendering the passage tedious and difficult. The sev- 

 eral valleys here converging from different directions gradu- 

 ally merge into a steeper, rocky slope, occupied, as before, with 

 dead wood. On this sub-alpine inclination, few peculiar plants 

 are met with; Penstemon glaucus, and P. alpinus, Torr., be- 

 ing most conspicuous. From this point, the mountain slope 

 increases quite rapidly, and the ascent is by steady and con- 

 tinuous climbing. The timber growth, confined almost ex- 

 clusively to a more stunted form of Abies Engelmanni, with 

 scattering trees of Pinus flexilis, soon gives place to open 

 patches, disclosing a vegetation purely alpine. Here, for the 

 first time, Pinus aristata, Engel., makes its appearance ; its 

 deformed trunks, beset with withered branches, and sending 

 off leafy tufts close to the ground, serve to give a peculiar 

 blighted look to the landscape which it occupies. I have had 

 frequent occasion, in my various mountain rambles, to notice 

 the abruptness with which the alpine flora usually makes Us 

 appearance. After toiling slowly up the steep ascent, with 

 little or nothing new to attract the attention, suddenly, on 

 mounting some exposed knoll, a profusion of alpine flowers 

 bursts on the view. The plants thus met with, include, al- 

 most constantly, Primula angustifolia, (Jijmopiterus alpinus, 

 Eritrichium aretioides, Arenaria arctica, Silene acaulis, 

 Aplo])apptts pygmceus, &ic. From this point, there is a con- 

 stant succession of these interesting forms, varied according 

 to the peculiar exposure, and the character of rock, or soil. 

 Along the somewhat scanty alpine brooks of this region, 

 (much less copious than those of the Snowy Range,) I was 

 pleased to notice the elegant flowered Primula Parryi, with 

 its very constant associate Sedum rhodanthum. The Mer- 

 tensia Sibirica still maintains its position by the edges of 

 streams, extending thence downward to the very base of the 

 mountains. Here, also, we more or less constantly meet with 

 Sibbaldia procumbens, Saxifraga cernua, S. debilis, S. punc- 

 tata, Callha UpAosepala, and others. Among the plants not 

 heretofore observed, is the neat Androsace Chamajasme, 

 which exhales a pleasant odor of bitter almonds, and the 

 beautiful red flowered Saxifraga Jamesii, rooting in crevices 

 on the vertical walls of shaded' rocks. These various forms 

 continue, intermixed with patches of snow, till the limit of 

 arborescent growth is reached, observing a well defined hori- 

 zontal line along the mountain slope. According to baro- 



