Sierra Club Bulletin 



Long before we reached Muir Pass even these alpine plants had 

 disappeared. Snow, rocks, ice piled one upon the other. Only occa- 

 sionally the little Arctic Willow {Salix artica var. petraea) raised 

 its fuzzy gray catkins above the ground. These miniature trees 

 testify surely to the arctic character of this desolate country. The 

 stems are very short and the slender tortuous branches much de- 

 pressed, forming a prostrate mass only one to four inches above the 

 frozen ground. Amid the rocks and ice of a mountain-top willow 

 trees an inch high prove conclusively the triumph of life. 



Tehipite Valley, July 24. — Along the trail down the Middle Fork 

 Canon we passed a Pinon Pine {Pinus monophylla) , evidently a 

 stray from the dry eastern slope of the Sierras. Possibly this tree 

 marks an old Indian trade route. The Indians' fondness for pinon- 

 nuts is well known, and it is believed by many that these isolated 

 specimens of Pinon have sprung from nuts left by the Indians in 

 their journeyings. 



Our camping-ground lay amidst the boulders of a sandy wash. 

 Here and there a tall Yucca (F. mohavensis) raised its towering 

 stems skyward. 



As evening fell we gathered about the camp-fire. How different 

 was this balmy air from that of a few nights before ! How different 

 was the vegetation of this warm semiarid valley to that of the wet 

 snow-swamps of higher altitudes! The great Maul Oaks (Quercus 

 chrysolepis) spreading their huge branches some fifty feet above us 

 made the memory of the little alpine dwarfs very unreal. 



As we sat in the flickering firelight, a slight motion called my at- 

 tention to a prickly grayish-green plant by my side. It stood about 

 three feet high and the leaves were covered with fine barbed hairs 

 which caused them to stick to anything that touched them. But what 

 made the plant conspicuous were the large yellow buds which 

 crowned the long wandlike stem. These yellow buds seemed alive. 

 First the long golden petals opened slowly, and gradually the mass 

 of golden stamens spread out to form a filmy halo of spun gold. 

 When fully open, the flowers of the Blazing-Star {Mentzelia laevi- 

 cauUs) spread for three or four inches. A magnificent sight they 

 made there in the firelight — another star blooming on earth as a re- 

 flection of the stars above. 



