OTHER WATER BORDERS 



range the helenum never makes itself com- 

 mon through profusion, and may be looked 

 for in the same places from year to year. 

 Another lake dweller that comes down to 

 the ploughed lands is the red columbine (C. 

 truncata). It requires no encouragement 

 other than shade, but grows too rank in the 

 summer heats and loses its wildwood grace. 

 A common enough orchid in these parts is 

 the false lady's slipper {Epipactis gigantea), 

 one that springs up by any water where 

 there is sufficient growth of other sorts to 

 give it countenance. It seems to thrive 

 best in an atmosphere of suffocation. 



The middle Sierras fall off abruptly east- 

 ward toward the high valleys. Peaks of 

 the fourteen thousand class, belted with 

 sombre swathes of pine, rise almost direct- 

 ly from the bench lands with no foothill 

 approaches. At the lower edge of the 

 236 



