_Orders_ _Open flowers_ _Species_ Compositæ 132,125 2 yellow, 3305 heads Leguminosæ 2620 2 purple and white Scrophulariaceæ 169 1 purple Umbellaceæ 620 1 yellow Geraniaceæ 22 1 purple Rubiaceæ 40 1 white 85 Natural order unknown 60 Plants unflowered Polemoniaceæ 407 2 purple Gramineæ 29,830 3; stems about 700; spikelets 10,700 Musci 10,000,000 2 purples, _Dicranum_, _Tunar_ Total of open flowers, 165,912 “ “ flowers in bud, 100,000 “ “ withered, 40,000 “ “ natural orders, 9-11 “ “ species, 16-17 The yellow of these _Compositæ_ is extremely deep and rich and bossy, as though the sun had filled their petals with a portion of his very self. It exceeds the purple of all the others in superficial quantity forty or fifty times their whole amount, but to an observer who first looks downward and then takes a more distant view, the yellow gradually fades and purple predominates because nearly all of the purple flowers are higher. In depth the purple stratum is about ten or twelve inches, the yellow seven or eight, and second purple of mosses one. I’m sorry my page is done. I have not told anything. I thought of you, Mrs. Carr, when I was in the glorious Yosemite and of the prophecy of “the Priests” that you would see it and worship there with your Doctor and Priest and I. It is by far the grandest of all of the special temples of Nature I was ever permitted to enter. It must be the _sanctum sanctorum_ of the Sierras, and I trust that you will all be led to it. Remember me to the Doctor. I hope he has the pleasure of sowing in good and honest hearts the glorious truth of science to which he has devoted his life. Give my love to all your boys and my little Butler. Adieu. J. MUIR. Address: Hopeton, Merced Co., Cala. At a sheep ranch between the Tuolumne and Stanislaus rivers, November 1st, [1868.] I was extremely glad to receive yet one more of your ever welcome letters. It found me two weeks ago. I rode over to Hopeton to seek for letters. I had to pass through a bed of _Compositæ_ two or three miles in diameter. They were in the glow of full prime, forming a lake of the purest _Compositæ_ gold I ever beheld. Some single plants had upwards of three thousand heads. Their petal-surface exceeded their leaf-surface thirty or forty times. Because of the constancy of the winds all these flowers faced in one direction (southeast), and I thought, as I gazed upon myriads of joyous plant beings clothed in rosy golden light, What would _old Linnæus_ or Mrs. Carr say to this? I was sorry to think of the loss of your letters, but it is just what might be expected from the wretched mail arrangements of the South.