40 Popular Studies of California Wild Flowers 



vivant. There was something so personal, so glowing, and so life- 

 like about it, that I almost fancied I could see the warm life blood 

 pulsing and quivering through it. ... I carried my prize home, 

 where it retained its beauty for a number of days. I afterwards 

 found many of them. They gradually follow the receding snows 

 up the heights, so that late in the season one must climb for them/' 



Margaret Armstrong, Western writer, describes the plant's 

 strange coloring as follows: "The plants are shaded with red all 

 over, from flesh color to rose, carmine, and blood-red, and are trans- 

 lucent in texture, so that when a shaft of sunlight strikes them they 

 glow with wonderful brilliance, almost as if lighted from within." 



Charles Francis Saunders, well-known naturalist, of Pasadena, 

 says that it is a ''favorite posie with the mountaineers in the Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains," and that he has frequently seen it "planted in 

 lard pails ornamenting the porches of their cabins." 



Dr. Harvey Monroe Hall, in his "Yosemite Flora," states that 

 the Snow Plant may be found in the transition zone of the Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains from Southern California northward to Oregon, 

 making its appearance soon after the snow has melted and later 

 until autumn. Dr. LeRoy Abrams, in his "Flora of Los Angeles 

 and Vicinity," says that the Snow Plant is frequently found in the 

 coniferous forests in the San Antonio and San Bernardino Moun- 

 tains above the seven thousand foot altitudes. 



A legend tells us that one of a band of Brown Robed Friars first 

 sent out by Spain to conquer the red men of California, after march- 

 ing weary miles over the Sierras, saw suddenly a crimson glow 

 through the snow. On nearer view it proved to be this blood-red 

 blossom. He gazed in silent awe, saying: "It is the flower of the 

 Saviour's precious blood, a sign that our labors will not be in vain," 

 for here 



"Far from Calvary's azvful summit, 



Where His life was sacrificed, 

 Figured on the lone Sierras, 



Shines the precious blood of Christ." 



I have never been so fortunate as to find the flower growing in 

 its native haunts, but have had specimens sent me for the State 

 Exhibit, and in spite of its great attraction to those who were privi- 

 leged to see it, I regretted always that it had been taken away from 

 its home in the wood, where it constituted a part of that mysterious 

 charm supplied by beautiful growing things, but rarely seen, and but 

 little understood. 



One cannot but wonder about the true life history of this plant 

 the real purpose of its existence something more than merely 

 being beautiful to look upon, I am sure, although that interesting- 

 fact, of itself, is sufficient excuse for its being. 



Its only accredited economic value is that it furnished a tooth- 

 ache medicine for the Indian. After all, it was the aborigines who 

 best understood nature's secrets, and with their passing she is closing 

 the pages of a volume more interesting than that which is written. 



