Flowers in Colorado. 



which I have a misgiving that I ought to call astragalus, 

 and not vetch. 



The mesa slopes away to the east and to the west ; it 

 is really a sort of causeway, or flattened ridge ; on its sides 

 are innumerable small nooks and hollows which, catching 

 and holding a little more moisture than the surface above, 

 are full of oak-bushes, little green oases on the bare slopes ; 

 in these grow several flowering shrubs, spiraeas, and others 

 whose names I know not. 



Crossing the mesa and entering the foot-hills again, we 

 come to little brook-fed glens and parks where grow all the 

 flowers I have mentioned ; yes, and more, for, I bethink 

 me, I have not yet spoken of the white clematis, virgin's 

 bower, as it is called in New England. This runs riot 

 along every brook-course in the region, this and the wild 

 hop, the white feathery clusters of the one and the swing- 

 ing green tassels of the other twisting and intertwisting, 

 and knitting everything into a tangle ; and the blue iris 

 also,* in great spaces in moist meadows, and the dainty 

 nodding bells of the wild flax a little farther up on the hills, 

 and the yellow lady's-slipper, and the coreopsis, and the 

 mertensia, which has drooping spikes of small blue bells 

 24 



