FLOWERS 49 



them, I carefully selected and took home one plant 

 with two buds for my picture work so others might 

 see it open and grow as the camera registered its 

 slow development. That was my first experience with 

 Lady Slipper Orchids and I did not know it took an 

 average of three weeks for them to open. As the 

 camera was timed for a four-day growth and as 

 orchids depend greatly on their color for their 

 beauty, the picture shows little action. 



Mrs. Michaels, Yosemite Park botanist, and a true 

 bird and flower lover, had shown me an owl's nest 

 with two baby owlets. She made me promise never 

 to go near the nest if anyone else was near, so I made 

 her promise she would not pick or tell anyone of my 

 Lady Slippers. 



The Mariposa Tulip, next to the poppy one of 

 the best-loved flowers in California, is of an infinite 

 variety of colors. There are about fifty-two varieties 

 growing from sea level up to eleven and twelve thou- 

 sand feet elevation. I have seen them with a band 

 of gold across each petal, exquisitely beautiful, colors 

 varying through shades of reds, purples, yellows and 

 white, always with its ever present crescent of rich, 

 deeper hues. The buds open rather rapidly in the 

 early morning hours. Their near closing every night 

 is followed by a reopening the following day on to 

 the fourth day when the petals drop off one by one, 



