THE AMERCIAN BOTANIST. 
3 
entire lack of color. A delicate slender plant, draped all 
in white, it looks in the darkling dells, which it loves to 
dwell in, the very ghost of a flower indeed. The blossoms 
exhale the delicious aroma of vanilla, an orchid product, and 
one wonders if there can be some subtle connection between 
this child of the north and the tropical bean whose extract 
flavors so many household '^goodies". 
The plant student in the Sierra woods is struck with the 
abundance of plants of the heath order, which are parasitic 
upon the roots of coniferous trees or amid the decaying 
vegetable mould. Easily prince of these is the flaming 
Sno\Y-p\sint (S arc odes sanguinea) , which arrests the atten- 
tion even of the rougest mountaineers, and the traveler 
now and then sees specimens set in a lard kettle decorating 
the porches of mountain cabins. The plant has small claim 
to beauty of form, being indeed clublike and stocky; its 
great charm is its color — a rich, glowing crimson, which 
seen in the sunshine forces an exclamation of pleasure from 
the most stolid. Contrary to the implication of its name, 
it does not grow in the snow, but first pushes up to the 
light after the winter snows have melted. In these high 
altitudes, however, where the open season is comparatively 
short, many flowers bloom on the edge of retreating snow 
banks; and again, a belated snow fall is not unlikely to 
come after the advent of summer, and blanket the plants 
about. Under some such circumstances, the snow-plant 
may first have been seen and named. 
Pine-drops (Pterospora andromedea) is another heath 
saprophyte that makes a striking show under the pines. 
Its wandlike, purplish stalks, leafless and exceedingly viscid, 
form clumps two feet high or more, strung near the sum- 
mit with rows of whitish bells of bloom. This is one of 
the few Sierra plants found east of the Rockies, its range 
extending sparingly to Western New England, according 
to Gray. 
