178 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFOKNIA 



with fresh love, and extol their beauty again and 

 again, as if no other in the world could henceforth 

 claim our regard. 



It is in these woods the great granite domes rise 

 that are so striking and characteristic a feature of 

 the Sierra. And here too we find the best of the 

 garden meadows. They lie level on the tops of the 

 dividing ridges, or sloping on the sides of them, em 

 bedded in the magnificent forest. Some of these 

 meadows are in great part occupied by Veratrum 

 alba, which here grows rank and tall, with boat- 

 shaped leaves thirteen inches long and twelve inches 

 wide, ribbed like those of cypripedium. Columbine 

 grows on the drier margins with tall larkspurs and 

 lupines waist-deep in grasses and sedges; several 

 species of castilleia also make a bright show in beds 

 of blue and white violets and daisies. But the glory 

 of these forest meadows is a lily L. parvum. 

 The flowers are orange-colored and quite small, the 

 smallest I ever saw of the true lilies ; but it is showy 

 nevertheless, for it is seven to eight feet high and 

 waves magnificent racemes of ten to twenty flowers 

 or more over one's head, while it stands out in the 

 open ground with just enough of grass and other 

 plants about it to make a fringe for its feet and 

 show it off to best advantage. 



A dry spot a little way back from the margin 

 of a Silver Fir lily garden makes a glorious camp 

 ground, especially where the slope is toward the east 

 and opens a view of the distant peaks along the 

 summit of the range. The tall lilies are brought 

 forward in all their glory by the light of your blaz 

 ing camp-fire, relieved against the outer darkness, 



