
          559.

men were at the station. They all thought that we had been <s>after</s> hunting
rattlesnakes and that I had them in my vasculum.  The mountain
seems to be noted for these snakes and every one talks about them. When
therefore, we crossed the track to the post-office, and I opened it [the vasculum] to take
out a few plants, several men standing near, were very much excited.
Seeing the plants, one of them (more educated than the others) told
us about a certain plant found growing on the mountain, in fact
he thought it only grew on the mountain and nowhere else, called the 
Maiden-head Tulip. "It's a tulip", he said, "and it looks like the thing
itself". He had never seen the plant, but he knew someone who knew
where they grew, and could always get one,  when they were in bloom,
which he thought was in June. "The flowers" he said, "were purple."
Thinking that we still didn't know what so wonderful a flower looked
like, he explained it again.  Our train now came along and in a few
minutes we were on our way homeward.  Although it was still light
enough when we reached the station, the mountain had for sometime
disappeared in the mist.  The lowering of the mist over the mountain
had been a most beautiful sight.  When but a short distance from it
it seemed that the top was enveloped in clouds, these descended gradually
lower and lower, until it seemed that half of it was in the cloud.
        