18 



BIRDS AND FLOWERS. 



farther than to Garvin Hill or the Contoocook River 

 that I do not endeavor to see something new. Records 

 of this sort take np very little room and they are the 

 best possible reminders of pleasant outings. I long 

 ago gave up collecting "souvenirs" except the choicest 

 photographs, and even these, unless expensively pre- 

 served, clutter up the house after a time : but the 

 memory of a bird or a flower brings the whole picture 

 before your eye. Thus I open Mrs. Dana's "How to 

 Know the Wild Flowers," my vade mecwm, and see 

 the name Hydrophyllum Virginicum or waterleaf, and 

 read the date, "July 6, 1898, Rainbow Falls, near 

 Lower Au Sable Lake, the Adirondacks. ' ' My mind 

 instantly reverts to that shimmering play of color 

 over a precipice where "the water spills itself in 

 smoke," and I recall the picturesque gorge in one of 

 the most beautiful regions I have ever visited. All 

 the mountain summits I have ever climbed are linked 

 together by the little Potentilla tridentata or white 

 three-toothed cinquefoil, which I always find growing 

 upon those exposed heights. 



Perhaps I ought to modify my statement about the 

 birds' appearing at a certain date. Although the 

 majority of them follow the prescribed time-tables, 

 yet there are always individual tourists, and one may 



