BIRDS, FLOWERS, AND PEOPLE 139 



that one for its bold and pleasing habit. For 

 as the plants do not grow in close ranks, so 

 they do not put forth their flowers in a mass. 

 They know a trick better than that. Thou- 

 sands of shrubs, but every one in its own 

 place, to be separately looked at; and on 

 every shrub a few sprays of bloom, each well 

 apart from all the others ; one twig bearing 

 nothing but leaves, another full of blossoms ; 

 a short branch here, a longer one there ; and 

 again, a smooth straight stem shooting far 

 aloft, holding at the tip a bunch of leaves 

 and flowers ; everything free, unstudied, and 

 most irregularly graceful, as if the bushes 

 had each an individuality as well as a tint 

 of its own. Often it was not a bush that I 

 stood still to take my fill of, but a single 

 branch, as beautiful, I thought, as if it 

 had been the only one in the world. 



One walk on Satulah not to the summit, 

 but by a roundabout course through the 

 woods to a bold cliff on the southern side 

 (all the mountains, as a rule, are rounded on 

 the north, and break off sharply on the 

 south) was literally a walk through an 

 azalea show ; first the flame-colored, bushes 

 beyond count and variety beyond descrip- 



