FOREWORD 



V \ ILD FLOWERS were a joy and inspiration in the happy days of 

 \ V / childhood when I was taught to observe and sketch them under the 

 \\l direction of a skilled artist Years passed before a botanical friend 

 / V at Glacier, British Columbia, asked me to portray a rare and perish- 

 able 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 

 geological 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 try- 

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

 to warm stiffened 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 



