24 WILD FLOWERS OF COLORADO. 



flowers. They had spoken the truth, there was material enough 

 for many months' work, and looking them over I found it difficult 

 to make a choice. 



" Here are some ast< s I found near the iron spring, will 

 you make a painting of them for me ?" ''I will gladly do so," I 

 answered, for they were a delight to look upon. They made me 

 think of a modest little country maiden dressed in her Sunday 

 best. So fresh and sweet, they looked an emblem of perfect 

 innocence. They had been broken off close to the top, just 

 as I have painted them. This is a double one ; the single ones 

 are much more common. There is a great variety of asters 

 in this state. I have counted thirty varieties in one summer. 

 The plant grows very tall — some as high as three and four feet. 

 They blossom near the top of the branches. Others grow close 

 to the ground in thick mats, the stems being so short that it 

 would be quite impossible to pick them without digging them up 

 by the roots. I have seen lovely bouquets made of them by 

 putting a quantity in a dish of wet sand. Thus arranged, they 

 will keep fresh and continue to blossom for weeks. 



Whenever I see the aster it reminds me of a lovely young 

 woman I met in the mountains last summer. I wish you could 

 see her as I first saw her. I was riding up one of the canyons 

 not far from Manitou. The morning was cool and pleasant. I 

 was going up a path seldom frecjuentcd. It is always a pleasure 

 to me to prospect in these unfrequented paths, and this morning 

 I found somethincr I was not lookino; for — a little cottacre snucrlv 



