Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/362

350 though their resemblance to the sturdy manzanita, the fragrant rhododendron, or the velvet-limbed madrone is not at first apparent. They abound in gallic acid, giving them a sour smell, suggestive of ink or vinegar. In early summer the flowers are succeeded by hard, circular pods, containing numerous fine seeds like those of a poppy; and despite repeated experiments in germination, they refuse to grow in a foreign environment. Transplanting also always meets with failure, though specimens may be dried and kept for several months. A writer in Hutching's Heart of the Sierras thus graphically describes this matchless Alpine flower:

 A pyramid of tiny tongues of flame, Darting from out the rifts of dazzling white; A strange bright phantom, born of ice and fire, Flushing pale wastes with gleams of crimson light.

On the bleak, ice-bound heights, at an altitude of from eight to twelve thousand feet, is found the curious "red snow," a very low form of vegetable life, which, though common in polar regions, occurs in the United States only on Mount Shasta and at the head of Cross Creek, Colorado. When it is trodden upon in a half-melted state, the footsteps of the mountain-climber fill in with a clear, blood-red fluid, which leaves no stain, even if examined in the handkerchief. Some of the patches are of considerable size, while others are scarcely a foot in diameter; and the color varies from a deep magenta to the faintest shade of pink.

Rivaling the snow plant in general interest is the singular Darlingtonia, or California pitcher-plant, indigenous to open, marshy places in the northern part of the State from Mount Shasta to the coast, and the only species of its genus, though it is related to the Eastern Sarracenias, or side-saddle flowers. The pitchers, which are said to be in reality the enlarged and hollowed petioles, or leaf stalks, average about three feet in height, and are terminated by an arching hood or crest, furnished with a pair of mustachelike appendages, which are the genuine leaves. As these are provided on the under side with numerous honey glands, and are usually highly colored, they constitute the principal lure; though the cunningly devised, nodding flowers, conspicuously borne on the ends of long, bare peduncles, also contain an intoxicating nectar. The interior of the pitchers is lined with innumerable fine, downward-pointing hairs, which form a most insecure footing for the struggling victims and render escape almost an impossibility, while the glare through the lacy, domelike roof only adds to the general confusion.

The colorless liquid which half fills the tube must be secreted by the plant itself, as the covers of the pitchers prevent the