ROGERS] AT PALM SPRINGS WITH THE SIERRA CLUB 197 



microscopic size. Up here the pale pink wild hollyhock is larger 

 than I saw in the valley, — plants three to four feet high springing 

 from clefts in the rocky bank. The clumsy gray stems bear 

 scarcely any leaves. 



Coming down to camp I stopped to cut some of the hooked, 

 homy spines of the barrel cactus to take to my nephew to add 

 to his extensive line of fish hooks. Also a few straight ones to 

 replace needles on the victrola. I found the cocoons of some moth 

 safely hid in the furrows down the sides of this plant. How the 

 winged form could emerge from such a prison, barricaded by the 

 overlapping spines is a wonder to me. Fiddleheads, forget-me- 

 nots, white and orange, daisies of various colors and sizes, tidy 

 tips, stone crop (hen and chickens), peppergrass, yellow evening 

 primrose, bed straw, and dodder, the tall tree tobacco, blue lark- 

 spur, bladderpod, with yellow flowers above the green fruits, and 

 showiest of all along the trail are large, magenta flower cups of 

 the hedgehog cactus growing on the sides of the club-like short 

 stem. Each flower is two to three inches across the cup, which is 

 made of many silky petals which close at night, and when the day 

 is cloudy. 



In sight from the entrance of this desert paradise are orchards 

 of almonds and apples and oranges, on land stolen from the desert 

 and made fertile by water from Mt. San Jacinto's snow reservoirs, 

 led to the orchards from this dashing stream that sings to us on 

 this lovely Sunday in Palmy Springs Canyon. 



The Cypresses of Monterey 

 A. B. C. 



Staunch derelicts adrift on Time's wide sea, 



Undaunted exiles from an age pristine! 

 Your loneliness in tortured limb we see; 



Your courage in your crown of living green; 

 Your strength unyielding, in your grappling knee; 



Your patience in the calmness of yotu* mien. 

 Enrapt, you stand in mighty reverie, 



While centuries come and go, unnoted and unseen. 



