122 THE MAMMOTH CA.VE. 



all around you, grow the lilies and roses, singly 

 overhead, but clustering together toward the 

 base of the vault, where they give place to 

 long, snowy, pendulous cactus-flowers, which 

 droop like a fringe around diamonded niches. 

 Here you see the passion-flower, with its curi- 

 ously-curved pistils; there an iris, with its lan- 

 ceolate leaves ; and again, bunches of celery, 

 with stalks white and tender enough for a 

 fairy's dinner. There are occasional patches 

 of gypsum, tinged with a deep amber color by 

 the presence of iron. Through the whole 

 length of the avenue there is no cessation of 

 the wondrous work. The pale rock-blooms 

 burst forth everywhere, crowding on each other 

 until the brittle sprays cannot bear their weight, 

 and they fall to the floor. The slow, silent 

 efflorescence still goes on, as it- has done for 

 ages in that buried tropic. 



" What most struck me in my under-ground 

 travels," continues Mr. Taylor, " was the evi- 

 dence of desig?! which I found everywhere. 

 Why should the forms of earth's outer crust, 

 her flowers and fruits, the very heaven itself 

 which spans her, be so wonderfully reproduced ? 

 What law shapes the blossoms and the foliage 

 of that vast crystalline garden ? There seemed 



