140 ALPINE FLOWERS [PART I. 



frost that burns and the wind that shears. A solitary Pine that 

 has been bold enough to plant itself among the rocks of the 

 high summits, it is usually so contorted that it looks as if in- 

 habited by demons ; while here and there one has succumbed 

 to the enemy, and a few blanched branches stick from a great, 

 dead, barkless base, lapped over the earthless granite. But go 

 a little lower down the mountain, and most probably you will 

 find a noble group of Piceas, startling from the size and height 

 of their trunks, though looking much tortured about the head 

 by the winds that surge across these summits the mast-heads 

 of the continent. 



Snow falls early and deep on the Sierras, and the stems 

 of the higher trees are often covered with it to a depth of 

 from 6 to 25 feet. Near the railway and near frequented 

 places, thick stumps of Pines, 6 to 15 feet high, may be 

 noticed ; these are the trees which have been cut down when 

 the snow was high and thick and firm about the lower part of 

 their stems. But if the nights are bitterly cold, the sun is 

 strong in the blue sky far into the winter months, so that the 

 snow is melted off the tree-tops, and the leaves of the Pines 

 live in light, throughout the winter. All the Pines that grow 

 near the summit must resist intense cold. 



The golden light of the sky and the blue of its depth, and 

 the purity of the fresh mantle of snow, are not more lovely in 

 their way than the robe of rich yellow Lichen with which the 

 stems and branches of the Pines are clothed. Imagine a dense 

 coat of golden fur, 3 inches deep, clothing the bole of a 

 noble tree for a length of 100 feet, and then running 

 out over all the branches, even to the small dead twigs, and 

 smothering them in deep fringes of gold, and some idea may be 

 formed of the glorious effect of this Lichen (Evernia). It is the 

 ornament of the mountain trees only ; in the valleys and on the 

 foot-hills it is not seen. 



It is a mistake to suppose the Sequoia (Wellingtonia) is 

 such a giant among the trees here ; several others grow nearly 

 or quite as high, and it is very likely that in such a climate 

 many Pines would attain extraordinary dimensions. There was 



