222 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



scavenger sort of existence, if you will, but lacking 

 somehow in the dignity of earning your own food 

 and preparing it. Of this gentry are two rarities 

 which we turned up at different times in our sierra 

 rambles. There was a certain trout-haunted brook 

 in the forest tangle, which lured us now and then 

 of an evening, and on one of our jaunts, the Pro- 

 fessor called my attention to some upright gleams 

 of light in a little darkling dell that lay just off the 

 trail. 



"The ghost-flower," he remarked. 



Nothing could have been better named the deli- 

 cate slender pencils of white a foot high or more, 

 seemed indeed like sheeted floral phantoms. From 

 base to blossom-crowned tip they were as colorless 

 as our eastern Indian pipes. On examination the 

 plant proved to be an orchid (Cephalcmthera Ore- 

 gana), and fragrant with an aroma suggesting 

 vanilla. The absolute lack of green is of course due 

 to the saprophytic habit of the plant, which feeds 

 entirely upon the decaying substance of the vege- 

 table kingdom. 



In a similar situation among dead leaves was our 

 other find, the snow plant of the sierra (Sar codes 

 sanguinea) . On our way into the mountains we had 

 seen specimens of this brilliantly colored parasite 

 planted in lard kettles and set for decoration on the 



