54 IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 



about a hundred varieties of flowers in a month, 

 and all within a radius of four miles. What 

 neighborhood can produce a record equal to 

 this? 



Then, again, the blossoms themselves are so 

 abundant. Hardly a root contents itself with 

 a single flower. The moccasin-plant is the only 

 one I have noticed as yet. One root will usu- 

 ally send up from one to a dozen stems, fairly 

 loaded with buds like the yucca which open 

 a few every day, and thus keep in bloom for 

 weeks. Or if there is but one stem, it will be 

 packed with buds from the ground to the tip, 

 with new ones to come out for every blossom 

 that falls. 



One in the vase on my stand at this moment 

 is of this sort. It is a stem that sometimes 

 attains a height of four or five feet. I think 

 it lengthens as long as it is blossoming, and, to 

 look at its preparations, that must be all sum- 

 mer. Every two or three inches of the stout 

 stem is a whorl of leaves and buds and blos- 

 soms. Except the number of buds, it is all in 

 fours. Opposite each other, making a cross, 

 are four leaves, like a carnation leaf at first, 

 but broadening and lengthening till it is two 

 inches at the base and eight or ten long. Ris- 

 ing out of the axil of each leaf are buds, of 

 graduated size and development up to the open 



