WILD GARDENS OF THE YOSEMITE PARK 1G9 



A single pine or hemlock or silver fir in the 

 prime of its beauty about the middle of June is 

 well worth the pains of the longest journey ; 

 how much more broad forests of them thousands 

 of miles long ! 



One of the best ways to see tree flowers is to 

 climb one of the tallest trees and to get into 

 close tingling touch with them, and then look 

 abroad. Speaking of the benefits of tree climb- 

 ing, Thoreau says : " I found my account in 

 climbing a tree once. It was a tall white pine, 

 on the top of a hill ; and though I got well 

 pitched, I was well paid for it, for I discovered 

 new mountains in the horizon which I had never 

 seen before. I might have walked about the 

 foot of the tree for threescore years and ten, and 

 yet I certainly should never have seen them. 

 But, above all, I discovered around me, — it was 

 near the middle of June, — on the ends of the 

 topmost branches, a few minute and delicate red 

 conelike blossoms, the fertile flower of the white 

 pine looking heavenward. I carried straightway 

 to the village the topmost spire, and showed it 

 to stranger jurymen who walked the streets, — 

 for it was court week, — and to farmers and 

 lumbermen and woodchoppers and hunters, and 

 not one had ever seen the like before, but they 

 wondered as at a star dropped down." 



The same marvelous blindness prevails here, 

 although the blossoms are a thousandfold more 



