WILD GARDENS OF THE YOSEMITE PARK 147 



ests rivals or surpasses it in superb abounding 

 bloom. 



Back a little way from the azalea-bordered 

 streams, a small wild rose makes thickets, often 

 several acres in extent, deliciously fragrant on 

 dewy mornings and after showers, the fragrance 

 mingled with the music of birds nesting in them. 

 And not far from these rose gardens Rubus 

 Nutkanus covers the ground with broad velvety 

 leaves and pure white flowers as large 'as those 

 of its neighbor the rose, and finer in texture ; 

 followed at the end of summer by soft red berries 

 good for bird and beast and man also. This is 

 the commonest and the most beautiful of the 

 whole blessed flowery fruity genus. 



The glory of the alpine region in bloomtime 

 are the heathworts, cassiope, bryanthus, kalmia, 

 and vaccinium, enriched here and there by the 

 alpine honeysuckle, Lonicera conjugialis, and 

 by the purple-flowered Primula suffruticosa, the 

 only primrose discovered in California, and the 

 only shrubby species in the genus. The lowly, 

 hardy, adventurous cassiope has exceedingly slen- 

 der creeping branches, scalelike leaves, and pale 

 pink or white waxen bell flowers. Few plants, 

 large or small, so well endure hard weather and 

 rough ground over so great a range. In July it 

 spreads a wavering, interrupted belt of the love- 

 liest bloom around glacier lakes and meadows 

 and across wild moory expanses, between roar- 



