登陆注册
4326700000031

第31章 IX(1)

Mormon Lilies[11]

Lilies are rare in Utah; so also are their companions the ferns and orchids, chiefly on account of the fiery saltness of the soil and climate. You may walk the deserts of the Great Basin in the bloom time of the year, all the way across from the snowy Sierra to the snowy Wahsatch, and your eyes will be filled with many a gay malva, and poppy, and abronia, and cactus, but you may not see a single true lily, and only a very few liliaceous plants of any kind. Not even in the cool, fresh glens of the mountains will you find these favorite flowers, though some of these desert ranges almost rival the Sierra in height. Nevertheless, in the building and planting of this grand Territory the lilies were not forgotten. Far back in the dim geologic ages, when the sediments of the old seas were being gathered and outspread in smooth sheets like leaves of a book, and when these sediments became dry land, and were baked and crumbled into the sky as mountain ranges; when the lava-floods of the Fire Period were being lavishly poured forth from innumerable rifts and craters; when the ice of the Glacial Period was laid like a mantle over every mountain and valley--throughout all these immensely protracted periods, in the throng of these majestic operations, Nature kept her flower children in mind. She considered the lilies, and, while planting the plains with sage and the hills with cedar, she has covered at least one mountain with golden erythroniums and fritillarias as its crowning glory, as if willing to show what she could do in the lily line even here.

Looking southward from the south end of Salt Lake, the two northmost peaks of the Oquirrh Range are seen swelling calmly into the cool sky without any marked character, excepting only their snow crowns, and a few weedy-looking patches of spruce and fir, the simplicity of their slopes preventing their real loftiness from being appreciated. Gray, sagey plains circle around their bases, and up to a height of a thousand feet or more their sides are tinged with purple, which I afterwards found is produced by a close growth of dwarf oak just coming into leaf. Higher you may detect faint tintings of green on a gray ground, from young grasses and sedges; then come the dark pine woods filling glacial hollows, and over all the smooth crown of snow.

While standing at their feet, the other day, shortly after my memorable excursion among the salt waves of the lake, I said: "Now I shall have another baptism. I will bathe in the high sky, among cool wind-waves from the snow." From the more southerly of the two peaks a long ridge comes down, bent like a bow, one end in the hot plains, the other in the snow of the summit. After carefully scanning the jagged towers and battlements with which it is roughened, I determined to make it my way, though it presented but a feeble advertisement of its floral wealth. This apparent barrenness, however, made no great objection just then, for I was scarce hoping for flowers, old or new, or even for fine scenery. I wanted in particular to learn what the Oquirrh rocks were made of, what trees composed the curious patches of forest; and, perhaps more than all, I was animated by a mountaineer's eagerness to get my feet into the snow once more, and my head into the clear sky, after lying dormant all winter at the level of the sea.

But in every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.

I had not gone more than a mile from Lake Point ere I found the way profusely decked with flowers, mostly compositae and purple leguminosae, a hundred corollas or more to the square yard, with a corresponding abundance of winged blossoms above them, moths and butterflies, the leguminosae of the insect kingdom. This floweriness is maintained with delightful variety all the way up through rocks and bushes to the snow--violets, lilies, gilias, oenotheras, wallflowers, ivesias, saxifrages, smilax, and miles of blooming bushes, chiefly azalea, honeysuckle, brier rose, buckthorn, and eriogonum, all meeting and blending in divine accord.

Two liliaceous plants in particular, Erythronium grandiflorum and Fritillaria pudica, are marvelously beautiful and abundant. Never before, in all my walks, have I met so glorious a throng of these fine showy liliaceous plants. The whole mountainside was aglow with them, from a height of fifty-five hundred feet to the very edge of the snow.

Although remarkably fragile, both in form and in substance, they are endowed with plenty of deep-seated vitality, enabling them to grow in all kinds of places--down in leafy glens, in the lee of wind-beaten ledges, and beneath the brushy tangles of azalea, and oak, and prickly roses--everywhere forming the crowning glory of the flowers. If the neighboring mountains are as rich in lilies, then this may well be called the Lily Range.

After climbing about a thousand feet above the plain I came to a picturesque mass of rock, cropping up through the underbrush on one of the steepest slopes of the mountain. After examining some tufts of grass and saxifrage that were growing in its fissured surface, I was going to pass it by on the upper side, where the bushes were more open, but a company composed of the two lilies I have mentioned were blooming on the lower side, and though they were as yet out of sight, I suddenly changed my mind and went down to meet them, as if attracted by the ringing of their bells. They were growing in a small, nestlike opening between the rock and the bushes, and both the erythronium and the fritillaria were in full flower. These were the first of the species I had seen, and I need not try to tell the joy they made.

They are both lowly plants,--lowly as violets,--the tallest seldom exceeding six inches in height, so that the most searching winds that sweep the mountains scarce reach low enough to shake their bells.

同类推荐
  • 佛说首楞严三昧经

    佛说首楞严三昧经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 九日临渭亭侍宴应制

    九日临渭亭侍宴应制

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 古尊宿语录

    古尊宿语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 章安杂说

    章安杂说

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 燕兰小谱

    燕兰小谱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 魔法章

    魔法章

    这个世界还有的救,也许有的人会对这个世界很失望,也许几经不存希望。但请你看看这个世界...还是有友情与爱的。在这个魔法的世界存在愤恨爱...这个世界到底是对还是错...对于古老的龙族魔法究竟应该用它毁灭还是保护。
  • 金河战记

    金河战记

    “想获得力量吗?戴上他,你将得到人人都向往的力量。”一个身着黑袍的人说道,接着拿出一对黑色手镯将其递到一个男人身前......
  • 长乐之战

    长乐之战

    长乐之战,长乐地区暴乱丛生,袁家因此便从此崛起,后军队入住,袁家风光不在,袁家大当家袁震天为了风光依旧,用金钱买了一官半职,为了上位,做了许多伤天害理之事,而玉三娘全家因此惨遭灭门,只留下她一个,为了复仇,玉三娘潜伏在袁府,成为袁家三当家。
  • 我是夸雷斯马

    我是夸雷斯马

    新书《我在足坛疯狂刷钱》已经发布,请多支持!......记者:请问斯科拉里先生,如果夸雷斯马和C罗这对葡萄牙的黄金兄弟同时掉进水里,你会先救谁?斯科拉里:当然是先救夸雷斯马,因为C罗会紧紧抱住夸雷斯马的大腿,也就跟着上来了,虽然我觉得夸雷斯马可能会一脚再把他踹下去......夸雷斯马表示,他真的只想安安静静的踢球,安安静静的拿冠军,安安静静的成为世界足坛第一人,可身边总有一群逗逼不让自己好好踢球。我也很无奈的!继《我是瓦尔迪》后大布打造《我是》三部曲的第二部,欢迎入坑!王大布竞技二群:912454135,还没有几个人,进来的都是元老。VIP群:629072568,2000粉丝值以上进。
  • 千手圣魔

    千手圣魔

    道心不死,侠骨不灭。哪怕舍身成魔,形神俱灭,也无所畏惧。只要这天地间尚有正义,必然将浩气长存。市井少年谭天奇机缘巧合之下,觉醒了身体里的麒麟血脉。于是,稀奇古怪的事情接踵而来。王侯的战争!妖族的崛起!还有徘徊在黑暗与死亡边缘的黑死人族,以及毁灭于近古时期的麒麟图腾。一切的起源就像一个扑朔迷离的谜团,其间似乎隐藏着巨大的危机……人类的存亡,岌岌可危!
  • 佛说咒齿经

    佛说咒齿经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 独吻灰姑娘

    独吻灰姑娘

    传说,宁静是翼井正位小姐,得到了翼井帝国两位上位的呵护备至。传说,翼井上位井瑄少爷千金博红颜一笑;传说,宁静不择手段赶了第八任正位小姐下台,自己取而代之。但是,传说有时不仅是传说。纽约,八点正。一个半球形状的古典会场,场内中间是一个宽阔的圆形舞台。五彩的霓光灯不停地闪换照耀,打在舞台上,同时也把大厅照得光亮。四周是粉饰过的粉红心墙。地上也是以心形为主图案的德国进口木板,温馨……
  • 八零农女逆袭记

    八零农女逆袭记

    陈子君聪明美丽又懂事,身边的人都知道。可是大家都不知道,她拗得很、死倔,说得好听点,那叫执著,说得难得点,就是认死理,死磕。认定了读书才会有出息,再苦再难硬是不舍得放弃;喜欢上了一个人,就看不见全天下人的好了。可是想爱的那个人,终还是渐行渐远,当另一份温暖悄然走近,她又该何去何从?爱之一字,为何那么难?
  • 那年的爱情输给了谁

    那年的爱情输给了谁

    走出大学校门的韩奕,怀着对爱情的执着,寻找她的初恋情人苏小然。而小然却在韩奕到来之后,郁郁冷淡。韩奕一度陷入了情感的迷茫漩涡中。然而曾经的刻骨铭心与不甘,使他想要走进小然的内心。令他意想不到的是,小然却从他的视线里消失了。孤独的韩奕遇到了貌似小然的女子小允,直觉告诉韩奕,这个女子,可能与小然有关。而当小然真正出现的时候,一切已无法挽回,握着她的手,韩奕心如刀绞……这是几个年轻人的爱情故事,有爱情,友情,还有梦想。执着的韩奕,孤独的小然,刚烈的小九,腼腆的余可,纯真的小指……他们在成长的过程中历经快乐,疼痛,迷茫,忧伤,蜕变。然而,当青春落幕,曲终人散,才发现曾经的所有也不过是一片沧海。
  • 追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    青涩蜕变,如今她是能独当一面的女boss,爱了冷泽聿七年,也同样花了七年时间去忘记他。以为是陌路,他突然向他表白,扬言要娶她,她只当他是脑子抽风,他的殷勤她也全都无视。他帮她查她父母的死因,赶走身边情敌,解释当初拒绝她的告别,和故意对她冷漠都是无奈之举。突然爆出她父母的死居然和冷家有丝毫联系,还莫名跳出个公爵未婚夫,扬言要与她履行婚约。峰回路转,破镜还能重圆吗? PS:我又开新文了,每逢假期必书荒,新文《有你的世界遇到爱》,喜欢我的文的朋友可以来看看,这是重生类现言,对这个题材感兴趣的一定要收藏起来。