156 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



Nearly all the many species have beautiful showy 

 heads of blue, lilac, and yellow flowers, enriching 

 the gardens of the lower pine region. Other 

 liliaceous plants likely to attract attention are 

 the blue-flowered camassia, the bulbs of which 

 are prized as food by Indians ; fritillaria, smila- 

 cina, chloragalum, and the twining climbing stro- 

 pholirion. 



The common orchidaceous plants are corallo- 

 rhiza, goodyera, spiranthes, and habenaria. Cy- 

 pripedium montanum, the only moccasin flower 

 I have seen in the Park, is a handsome, thought- 

 ful-looking plant living beside cool brooks. The 

 large oval lip is white, delicately veined with 

 purple ; the other petals and sepals purple, strap- 

 shaped, and elegantly curved and twisted. 



To tourists the most attractive of all the flow- 

 ers of the forest is the snow plant (Sarcodes san- 

 guined). It is a bright red, fleshy, succulent 

 pillar that pushes up through the dead needles 

 in the pine and fir woods like a gigantic aspara- 

 gus shoot. The first intimation of its coming is 

 a loosening and upbulging of the brown stratum 

 of decomposed needles on the forest floor, in the 

 cracks of which you notice fiery gleams ; pre- 

 sently a blunt dome-shaped head an inch or two 

 in diameter appears, covered with closely imbri- 

 cated scales and bracts. In a week or so it 

 grows to a height of six to twelve inches. Then 

 the long fringed bracts spread and curl aside, 





