CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



above the bracken; moist slopes are covered with another 

 kind of painted cup, and other kinds of scarlet Pentste- 

 mon appear ; one kind is a vigorous shrub, other kinds 

 grow in clumps sometimes an acre in extent, and over 

 these brilliant patches the humming birds poise or dart 

 about at their graceful antics; for of course it is the hum- 

 ming birds that make these gorgeous flowers possible. 



Of all mountain plants with red flowers, the snow 

 plant is the most unique. Not the flower only, but stem 

 and scale-like leaves are deep crimson. There is no trace 

 of green, for, like many other plants growing in dim for- 

 ests, this does not attempt to make its own food, but lives 

 on vegetable matter in the soil. It is rarely, if ever, true 

 that these flowers push up through the snow, as some 

 alpine flowers do, but they come early along the edges of 

 the melting snow drifts. This is because the shoots were 

 formed below ground the summer before, and have been 

 kept warm by the snow blanket. The flower clusters last 

 a long time; you may find them in August. Their bril- 

 liant color, of course, appeals to the humming birds, but 

 they share the honey with the bees. 



The bees have mountain flowers of their own. There 

 are acres of blue gilias for honey, and acres more of blue 

 lupines for pollen. Indeed nearly all the wild flowers you 

 have learned to know in the valley have mountain cousins, 

 many of them in charming mountain dress. There are 

 mountain buttercups, violets, shooting stars, primroses and 

 so on through the list. Besides, there are lovely flowers 

 peculiar to the mountains, such as gentians, saxifrages, and 

 many kinds of lilies. In fact, if you have learned to see 

 and to know the plants about you at home, a mountain 

 journey will give you double the pleasure you would get 

 without an interest in plants. 



But you need not go to the mountains to find inter- 

 esting summer flowers and plants. See how the plants 



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