156 



Nevada, collected by Brewer, and also the monograph of ^5- 

 tragahis and Oxytropis, were among them, and were documents 

 of great usefulness to one entering upon the study of Colorado 

 botany thirty years ago. 



"My departure from Decatur, Illinois, for Colorado Territory, 

 was taken in early April, 1870. By the then new transconti- 

 nental railway I was conveyed, by way of Cheyenne, within 

 three days, to Evans, Colorado. The last day's travel was 

 through a snow-storm which concealed the landscape, so that I 

 was at the base of the Rocky Mountains without having seen 

 them. The snowing ceased after night-fall, the sky clearing 

 beautifully before morning, so that on going forth from my hotel 

 lodgings at Evans just after sunrise, I had there my first view of 

 the long dreamed of land of botanical promise. The prospect 

 of early vernal botanizing was less inviting than it might have 

 been; yet the landscape was beautiful beyond description; for 

 not only Long's Peak, so grandly conspicuous from Evans, but 

 also the whole hundred miles' length of outlying foothills, all 

 lay in the dazzling sun-lit whiteness of fresh-fallen snow. 



"But how transitory April snows may be in these fair fields 

 I learned before noon of that warm sunny day. The day was 

 chiefly occupied in the passage by stage coach to Denver, fifty 

 miles distant; and before the middle of the afternoon all the 

 snow was gone from the plains and lower foothills. 



"On the bright spring morning following the arrival at Denver, 

 I attempted what I supposed would be a mere early morning 

 walk to the nearest foothills. I was naturally eager to see what 

 floral indications of spring the plains and hills had to show. 

 This desire was happily satisfied, and at the same time I learned, 

 incidentally, how deceptive distance is in these regions, when, 

 owing to the elevation and absence of humidity, the air is so 

 thin and transparent. The little line of rounded grassy hills 

 which I had judged to be three or four miles away seemed almost 

 as distant as before when I had been walking directly towards 

 them for an hour. And the long day was consumed in reaching 

 what I had believed would be the easy goal of a not very long 

 morning walk. 



