21S WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



summer when camping in the sunny kingdom of the 

 sugar pines in Central California. Here and there 

 about our camp in the cheerful openness of the for- 

 est grew and bloomed mariposa tulips gay-winged 

 as butterflies and bright-faced monkey flowers; 

 golden eriophyllums, fritillaries in chocolate and 

 green, and fragrant blue lupines; lilies and wild 

 roses and gilias of as many hues as Harlequin's 

 coat ; but commoner than any was a twinkling white 

 flower like a strawberry blossom resting solitarily 

 upon a low, shrubby plant whose finely dissected 

 leaves, spread like a mat, covered considerable areas 

 on the slopes and banks beneath the giant pines. 

 The foliage was fragrant with an aroma suggesting 

 tobacco, and sticky to a degree that was as embar- 

 rassing as molasses, as I discovered after gathering 

 some specimens for consultation with the Pro- 

 fessor. 



" Chamaebatia foliolosa," he pronounced it with 

 learned formality, "but the mountaineers sometimes 

 call it 'mountain misery' which is not a bad name, 

 because any one walking through the patches of it, 

 which are everywhere, gets his shoes and trousers 

 miserably tarred up with the viscous clothing of its 

 leaves. Sheep and cattle become smeared with the 

 same stuff, and the mountain people tell me that by 

 autumn cowbells sometimes become so clogged up 



