My First Summer 



vaccinium, and kalmia, now in flower, 

 make beautiful rugs and borders along the 

 banks of the streams. Shaggy beds of dwarf 

 oak (^uercuscbrysolepis, var. vaccinifolid} over 

 which one may walk are common on rocky 

 moraines, yet this is the same species as the 

 large live oak seen near Brown's Flat. The 

 most beautiful of the shrubs is the purple- 

 flowered bryanthus, here making glorious 

 carpets at an elevation of nine thousand feet. 

 The principal tree for the first mile or 

 two from camp is the magnificent silver fir, 

 which reaches perfection here both in size 

 and form of individual trees and in the mode 

 of grouping in groves with open spaces be- 

 tween. So trim and tasteful are these sil- 

 very, spiry groves one would fancy they 

 must have been placed in position by some 

 master landscape gardener, their regularity 

 seeming almost conventional. But Nature 

 is the only gardener able to do work so 

 fine. A few noble specimens two hundred 

 feet high occupy central positions in the 

 [ 216] 



