xxxi] WASHINGTON TO SAN FRANCISCO 161 



thousand five hundred feet elevation), where we had supper, 

 bed, and breakfast. 



Next day was much more enjoyable. The road was 

 wonderfully varied, always going up or down, diving into 

 deep wooded valleys with clear and rapid streams, then up 

 the slope, winding round spurs, crossing ridges, and down 

 again into valleys, but always mounting higher and higher. 

 And as we got deeper into the sierra, the vegetation con- 

 tinually changed, the pines became finer both in form, size, 

 and beauty. At about three thousand feet we first saw the 

 beautiful Douglas fir, and the cedar (Libocedruo decurrens), 

 both common in our gardens ; then still higher there were 

 silver firs and the fine Picea nobilis, as well as a few of the Big 

 Trees {Sequoia gigantea), the road being cut right through the 

 middle of one of these (at about five thousand eight hundred 

 feet). Higher up still we saw the tamarisk pine (Pinus 

 contorta) and the grand sugar-pine {Pinus Lambertiana) the 

 resin of which is quite sugary, with very little of the turpen- 

 tine taste ; and among these, especially on the valley slopes, 

 is an undergrowth of the beautiful white azalea and the hand- 

 some dogwood {Cornus Nuttallii), with very large white bracts. 

 Then on the highest spur (seven thousand feet), where there 

 were still patches of snow, we saw many of the strange snow 

 plants {Sarcodes sanguined), a thick fleshy root-parasite with a 

 dense spike of flowers of a blood-red colour. It belongs to 

 the heath family, and is allied to our Monotropa hypopitys. 

 The sarcodes is figured in one of Miss North's pictures at 

 Kew. From the summit we descended towards the valley, and 

 then down a steep zigzag road, with the beautiful Bridal Veil 

 Fall opposite, and the grand precipice of El Capitan before us, 

 then into the valley itself with its rushing river, to the hotel 

 in the dusk. 



As both hotel and excursions were here very costly, we 

 | only stayed two clear days, and went one " excursion " to the 

 Nevada Fall, the grandest, if not the most beautiful, in the 

 valley. My brother and niece rode up, but I walked to enjoy 

 the scenery, and especially the flowers and ferns and the fine 

 glaciated rocks of the higher valley. The rest of my time I 



VOL. II. M 



