"To California 



for every flower creature that dwells in its most 

 delightsome places more than a hundred are 

 living here. Here, here is Florida ! Here they 

 are not sprinkled apart with grass between as 

 on our prairies, but grasses are sprinkled among 

 the flowers; not as in Cuba, flowers piled upon 

 flowers, heaped and gathered into deep, glow- 

 ing masses, but side by side, flower to flower, 

 petal to petal, touching but not entwined, 

 branches weaving past and past each other, 

 yet free and separate — one smooth garment, 

 mosses next the ground, grasses above, petaled 

 flowers between. 



Before studying the flowers of this valley and 

 their sky, and all of the furniture and sounds 

 and adornments of their home, one can scarce 

 believe that their vast assemblies are perma- 

 nent; but rather that, actuated by some plant 

 purpose, they had convened from every plain 

 and mountain and meadow of their kingdom, 

 and that the diff^erent coloring of patches, acres, 

 and miles marks the bounds of the various 

 tribes and family encampments. 



