72 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW 



CHAPTER V. 



SOME FLOWERS THAT LIKE HIGH ALTITUDES. 



Public opinion has always esteemed a love of 

 flowers a feminine quality, in spite of the fact that 

 all the world botanists have been men. In the past, 

 only man could venture into new regions and ex- 

 plore unknown heights, for woman's place was in 

 the haunts of home. So men discovered new plants 

 and named them and described them. This mascu- 

 line description is probably the foundation for many 

 of the mistakes in the color of flowers as set down 

 in botanies. Few men, not artists, see the difference 

 in hues and shades and tints as women do. This 

 defect in the color education of men as well as the 

 fact that many plants have been described from 

 dried specimens, whose color is quite unlike the 

 fresh beauty has often led astray amateur botanists 



But to-day is the era of the amateur botanist as 

 well as of the amateur in every other line. Women 

 now find themselves free to tramp anywhere their 

 brothers may. They invade the most remote wilds 

 and eagerly examine the flora in its native soil. 



