My First Summer 



likes plenty of cool water, and is a great 

 drinker like the alder, willow, and cotton- 

 wood, and flourishes best on stream banks, 

 though it often wanders far from streams in 

 damp shady glens beneath the pines, where 

 it is much smaller. When the leaves ripen 

 in the fall, they become more beautiful 

 than the flowers, displaying charming tones 

 of red, purple, and lavender. Another species 

 grows in abundance as a chaparral shrub 

 on the shady sides of the hills, probably 

 Cornus sessilis. The leaves are eaten by the 

 sheep. Heard a few lightning strokes in 

 the distance, with rumbling, mumbling re- 

 verberations. 



June 27. The beaked hazel (Cory/us 

 rostrata, var. Californica] is common on cool 

 slopes up toward the summit of the Pilot 

 Peak Ridge. There is something peculiarly 

 attractive in the hazel, like the oaks and 

 heaths of the cool countries of our fore- 

 fathers, and through them our love for these 

 plants has, I suppose, been transmitted. This 

 [ 86 ] 



