The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1889-09-13
THE SIERRA SNOW PLANT
Beautiful Flower Found on the Moan.
tain Heights Of the West.

v Behuttful FlOWer FOuhu on INC nouH-
tain Heights Of the West.
One thing that never fails to interest
sll who see it, when alone it is found
On the mountain heights Of the Sierras.
is the snow plant, known TO botanists
as the Sdrcodes Sanguiaea, meaning
blooded flesh. Both names are said 20
be misnOmers. The first was given IT
from its supposed birth among the
Sierra snow, some travellers asserting
that it sent its roots into snowbanks as
other plants into earth. Superficial
observers were deceived by seeing the
brilliant spikes of flowers rising from
the snow that had fallen around them
in the quick mountain squalls after the
plants had grown. No flesh or blood
could be as exguisitely beautiful; imag-
inc rosy and snow tented, crowded
hyacinth, from eight TO twenty inchesin
height. every miniature bell .ound
about by rosy and frosted silver rib
bon, all topped by huge head of aspar-
agus 10 boar frost and silver. The
frosted papilla is very marked IN every
sepal and bract. Though the whole
translucent spike is flushed with rose
and carmiue, the petals are the deepest
and most brilliantly colored parts of
the flower. which is five parted, and
each open one showing slightly the
stamens aud pistils. There have been
seen specimens bearing eighty perfect
flowers and pseudo-bulb twenty-five
inches in circumference, brittle almost
as spun glass. and although solid as q
pineapple when first dug up, dried
away to the size of the stem. All at
tempts at cultivation have thus far
failed. the bulbs refusing to stand trans
planting and the seeds to sprout. For
the man who can discover the way to
introduce them to cultivation there Is
fortune in store. and what glorious
addition they will be to our early gar
den floral They have been gathered in
their native wilds from May until past
the middle of July, but even at home
are said TO be capriclous in growth.
Localities where they abound one sea-
son may be without them the next.
They are found as high as 5000 feet
above the sea level and not much below
1000. Ii was once said that they would
not survive below the level OF the sum-
mer snow line, but they have been
since seen almost covering the ground
far below. The snOwbanks seem, how
ever, TO protect them from the winds
sweeping among the mountains, and
they make their early growth and de-
velopment beneath the driven SHOWS,
and when the approach of summer
leaves the surface OF the ground ex-
posed it is covered in a few days with
the red crowns of tho snow plants. The
flowers are ut first protected by the
leaf-like bracts, which gradually un-
fold as the weather warns and appar-
emily close up again when the temper
ature becomes suddenly cold. When
thus closed the parts OF the flower are
so perfectly fitted together as to resem-
BILE huge head OF asparagus. The
brittle roots extend into the ground al
most as far rs the flower does above it.
Although once thought to be parasitic
upon decaying cedar roots, no indica-
tions OF parasitic character are found
upon digging them up The plaat is
said to be found in soils Of varying ma
ture, but always where il gets the water
from melting snow. Perhaps some new
system Of refrigeration will be dis
covered by which the bulbs may be
transported to other regions. Ameri-
can Garden.
At the seventy-nitn anniversary ',
Ala Iln,.tt.t MiaHsAnno,, IT..s.,,, I,AaJr.