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111 

 U)3X 



V.I 



FOREWORD 



\\ I ILD FLOWERS were a joy and inspiration in the happy days of child- 

 \\ / hood when I was taught to observe and sketch them under the direc- 

 yy tion of a skilled artist. Years passed before a botanical friend at Glacier, 

 British Columbia, asked me to portray a rare and perishable alpine flower 

 so as to preserve its beauty, color, and graceful outline as a living thing. 

 During succeeding seasons I painted other rare specimens until many of the 

 * living flowers that skirt the eternal frost' ' in the wildflower gardens of the 

 Canadian Rockies were transferred in color and form to the East, where 

 sketches of the native woodland and meadow blossoms soon began to join 

 them. 



During the past ten years I have spent from three to four months each 

 season in the Canadian Rockies, where Dr. Walcott was carrying on geolog- 

 ical explorations, covering in all more than five thousand miles on the 

 mountain trails. This afforded me a wonderful opportunity for intimate 

 study of the flora, my aim being to collect and paint the finest specimens 

 obtainable, and to depict the natural grace and beauty of the plant without 

 conventional design. Many of the western sketches were made under trying 

 conditions. Often, on a mountain side or high pass, a fire was necessary to 

 warm stiff'ened fingers and body. In camp, the diffused light of the white 

 tent was a great handicap, and considerable ingenuity was required to obtain 

 a proper combination of light and shade. The paint box and pads found 

 safe conveyance on the back of the saddle, except in unusual storms of 

 rain or snow, and many times while waiting for the pack train to be made 

 ready, a sketch was begun or completed. The short lives of the blooming 

 plants definitely limit the number of sketches that can be made during a 

 single field season, for many hours of work are necessary to finish a single 

 sketch, and wild flowers wither quickly. A sharp frost in July or early 

 August will ruin them, or an unusually warm, dry season or a cold, wet one 

 will prevent flowering or kill the blossoms that have matured. For these 

 reasons desirable specimens of many of the fragile alpine flowers are difficult 

 to secure, and in some instances were seen in perfection but two or three 



