76 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW 



intense vitality. It does not grow out of the snow, 

 as poets are wont to picture it, but springs from the 

 brown piney earth after the snow has melted. Some- 

 times snow is all around the exposed ground, and 

 this may have given the artist his color contrast, and 

 he failed to notice that the spot from which the 

 Snow Plant rose was free of white. Snow Plant 

 plans her growing in the fall, with new little plants 

 all ready to come up when instinct tells them that 

 the sun reaches the ground. 



The Snow Plant loves bright color and disdains 

 to wear green leaves and prosaic brown stems. It 

 tinges its whole body red: the fleshy simple stem, 

 the bracts which it substitutes for leaves, the bells 

 which are its blossoms, and the fruit it produces, all 

 red, except sometimes whitish at the base and root. 

 People not knowing the plant often pick it up when 

 it is simply a column of red bracts wrapped around 

 the unawakened flowers. It is not at all beautiful in 

 that stage and gives no idea of its shapeliness in 

 maturity. If left unhandled, it really becomes beau- 

 tiful, and it is interesting in its development. 



If one watches its haunt, some day you see a push- 

 ing up of the brown earth in a little heap. From 

 this, soon peeps a pale red tip. This comes out far- 

 ther, showing some tightly wrapped bracts. It 

 grows taller, displaying more and more bracts with 

 each inch of height. Finally, its full length is ex- 



