STEEP TRAILS 



grandly do the great logs and branches of your 

 campfire give forth the heat and light that 

 during their long century-lives they have so 

 slowly gathered from the sun, storing it away 

 in beautiful dotted cells and beads of amber 

 gum! The neighboring trees look into the 

 charmed circle as if the noon of another day 

 had come, familiar flowers and grasses that 

 chance to be near seem far more beautiful and 

 impressive than by day, and as the dead trees 

 give forth their light all the other riches of 

 their lives seem to be set free and with the 

 rejoicing flames rise again to the sky. In set- 

 ting out from Strawberry Valley, by bearing off 

 to the northwestward a few miles you may see 



" . . . beneath dim aisles, in odorous beds, 

 The slight Linnsea hang its twin-born heads, 

 And [bless] the monument of the man of flowers, 

 Which breathes his sweet fame through the 

 northern bowers." 



This is one of the few places in California 

 where the charming linnsea is found, though 

 it is common to the northward through Oregon 

 and Washington. Here, too, you may find the 

 curious but unlovable darlingtonia, a carnivo- 

 rous plant that devours bumble-bees, grass- 

 hoppers, ants, moths, and other insects, with 

 insatiable appetite. In approaching it, its 

 suspicious-looking yellow-spotted hood and 



86 



