uoia gigantea_, the king
of all the conifers. Furthermore, the Douglas spruce (_Pseudotsuga
Douglasii_) and _Libocedrus decurrens_, and a few two-leaved pines,
occur here and there, forming a small part of the forest. Three pines,
two silver firs, one Douglas spruce, one sequoia,--all of them, except
the two-leaved pine, colossal trees,--are found here together, an
assemblage of conifers unrivaled on the globe.

We passed a number of charming garden-like meadows lying on top of the
divide or hanging like ribbons down its sides, imbedded in the glorious
forest. Some are taken up chiefly with the tall white-flowered _Veratrum
Californicum_, with boat-shaped leaves about a foot long, eight or ten
inches wide, and veined like those of cypripedium,--a robust, hearty,
liliaceous plant, fond of water and determined to be seen. Columbine and
larkspur grow on the dryer edges of the meadows, with a tall handsome
lupine standing waist-deep in long grasses and sedges. Castilleias, too,
of several species make a bright show with beds of violets at their
feet. But the glory of these forest meadows is a lily (_L. parvum_). The
tallest are from seven to eight feet high with magnificent racemes of
ten to twenty or more small orange-colored flowers; they stand out free
in open ground, with just enough grass and other companion plants about
them to fringe their feet, and show them off to best advantage. This is
a grand addition to my lily acquaintances,--a true mountaineer, reaching
prime vigor and beauty at a height of seven thousand feet or
thereabouts. It varies, I find, very much in size even in the same
meadow, not only with the soil, but with age. I saw a specimen that had
only one flower, and another within a stone's throw had twenty-five. And
to think that the sheep should be allowed in these lily meadows! after
how many centuries of Nature's care planting and watering them, tucking
the bulbs in snugly below winter frost, shading the tender shoots with
clouds drawn above them like curtains, pouring refreshing rain, making
them perfect in beauty, and keeping them safe by a thousand miracles;
yet, strange to say, allowing the trampling of devastating sheep. One
might reasonably look for a wall of fire to fence such gardens. So
extravagant is Nature with her choicest treasures, spending plant beauty
as she spends sunshine, pouring it forth into land and sea, garden and
desert. And so the beauty of lilies falls on angels and men, bears