STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



and wild grassy plain-lands, where it has little shade unless 

 from the surrounding herbage. The plant is seldom more 

 than twelve or eighteen inches in height, tapering from a 

 broad base to a slender leafy point. The foliage is whitish 

 or hoary gray, from a minute downy covering. These gray 

 leaves are hastate, not arrow-shaped, pointed and lobed at 

 the base; the lower leaves are on long footstalks, the upper 

 ones diminished to mere bracts. The flowers are large 

 pure white open bells, on long stalks only two opening 

 each day. The stem of the plant is somewhat woody, 

 slightly branching or simple, and forming a pyramid of 

 slender apex, twining slightly and clasping the stalks of 

 grasses and neighboring herbs. 



On the flowery Kice Lake plains I have seen this lovely 

 flower mingling ks hoary foliage and white fragile bells 

 with the gay bracts of the Scarlet Cup and azure-blue spikes 

 of the Wild Lupine, the Sweet Pyrola and Wild Kose., and 

 surely no garden ever shewed more glorious colors or more 

 harmonious contrasts than this wilderness displayed. 



This pretty wild Convolvulus might be introduced into 

 garden culture, where the soil is light, without any fear of 

 its becoming a troublesome weed like the common Bind- 

 weed, or the double-blossomed variety, which should only be 

 kept as plants for a trellis or as bower-climbers. 



GRASS-PINK CALOPOGON Calopogon pulcliellus (R. Br.). 



Our open springy poplar flats, partially shaded by aspen 

 shrubs and wild grasses, afford shelter to many a rare 

 Orchid. The warm rays of the sun, acting on the moist 

 boggy soil, quicken into life and loveliness one of the most 

 ornamental of our orchidaceous plants. In the month of 

 July we find that very beautiful flower, the Grass-pink, or 

 Calopogon. Its flowers are little known, and may indeed 

 truly be said to waste their sweetness on the desert air. 



104 



