SUPPLEMENT 



Many summer plants in the valleys are, as noted in the Reader, 

 Compositse, and have been considered in Chapter XII and its Supple- 

 ment. The Trichostema (blue-curls), and Eremocarpus (turkey-weed) 

 were treated at length in Chapter III and Supplement. These plants 

 can, of course, depend upon much insect attention ; even the incon- 

 spicuous flowers of the Eremocarpus and other Euphorbiaceae are 

 much visited by bees. 



It is difficult to dismiss the subject of mountain flowers with a few 

 sentences. All through our California mountains at an altitude of 

 from five to eight thousand feet, are green meadows or pine groves 

 traversed by mountain streams, spots ideal in scenery and climate, 

 and yet unspoiled by civilization, where those who enjoy a natural 

 life can, at little expense, pass a delightful summer. There are parents 

 who appreciate this, and fortunate children who will enjoy all the 

 more their weeks of liberty if they have seeing eyes for living things. 

 There are teachers, too, who, even in this high pressure age of sum- 

 mer schools, institutes, seminaries, and pedagogical literature, believe 

 that a few weeks spent with nature in searching out her lessons at 

 first hand, is better preparation for another year's work than continu- 

 ous inpourings of pedagogical lore. 



A complete summary of mountain plants is really not necessary. 

 One must turn back the leaves of the calendar in climbing mountains, 

 and expect, at an altitude of seven thousand feet, to find early violets 

 and buttercups in June. The species will be unfamiliar and it may 

 not be possible to learn the full name without consulting some 

 botanist who has made a special study of the neighborhood, but any 

 one interested in the habits of plants and their adaptation to their 

 environment, will take keen pleasure in comparing the mountain 

 species with familiar valley species of the same genus. Generally, 

 too, the plants grow in such masses that there is the best of opportu- 

 nities for watching their relations to their guests. Then there is the 

 zest of finding plants of new families ; early in the season Saxifrages, 

 with their delicate flower clusters and beautiful leaves, also the tall, 

 blue iris, or flag; later, rhododendrons and gentians, and perhaps 

 orchids and cardinal flowers; in the pine woods, not only the snow 

 plant, Barcodes sanguined t Torr., but other saprophytic Ericaceae, the 

 pine drops, Plerospora andromedea, Nutt., for instance, with its tall, 

 uncanny spikes of flesh-colored flowers, and the pretty Pyrolas, 

 which are only partially saprophytic. There are plants whose flower 

 clusters actually melt their way through the snow ; the Soldanella of 

 the Alps does this, but so far as I can learn, our snow plant has not this 

 habit. It is possible that red flowers are not so marked a feature of 



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