had he told me about the mountains that you could look immediately down into the deep soft valleys and that the neighboring slopes seemed so close you thought you could touch them , though they were far , far away i do n't think so , but he had described well the flowers-the shrimp plant with its tiny blossoms , and the orchid tree and the ginger lilies , yes , those fierce red lilies with their delicate shivering petals , and the ferns nestled in the deep glades , and the waxen bird-of-paradise and the tall stiff pussy willows , and the tiny yellow-throated blossoms of the trumpet vine .