t 
256 Flora of the Olympics. [ZOE 
The third set, the native plants, yielded me in trees first, Pseudo- 
tsuga Douglasit (“red or yellow fir”’ vernacularly, but more prop- 
erly Douglas Spruce). This tree is not a true fir as may be known 
from its pendant cones which fall from the tree in one piece, like the 
cones of the pines. In the true firs, the cones stand erect, or nearly 
so, and the outer pieces (scales and bracts) fall off from the central 
column, which remains perpendicular upon the branch for years, 
the erect ‘‘spikes,”’ presenting a most peculiar appearance to 
any daring climber who will mount to the top of one of our white 
or balsam firs in the late fall, after the cones have—what shall we 
call it—moulted? Next I found the hemlock ( Tsuga Mertensiana), 
with its soft delicate leaves and handsome, symmetrical trunk. This 
tree is one of our grandest evergreens. Some of the trees of this 
species whose girth would not be far outdistanced by our large Doug- 
_ las Spruces, were foundin the rich, alluvial forests about Lake Cush- 
man. Near by and always present, except upon the rocky 
slopes, was the western arbor-vite, called commonly “ cedar,” ~ 
(Thuja gigantea.) These trees about Lake Cushman, together 
with the Douglas Spruce, are of gigantic proportions, rivalling the 
famed redwoods of the Californian forests. The size of some of the 
tallen monsters of these two species can best be realized when you 
have to saw one after another out of the trail to make a way for 
your pack animals, or when occasionally one has to be felled over 
some chasm as a bridge for yourselves, or, possibly, for your ani- 
mals! ‘‘ Hic labor hoc opus,” you sigh with Aeneas of old! I have 
before me at this instant the photograph of a cedar stump which — 
attracts widespread attention near the town of Snohomish, Upper 
Sound. It is nearly eighteen feet in dianteter at the ground, is 
planked over and easily accommodates a quadrille set with their ac- 
companying musicians. A fir tree near Olympia was cut this year 
which, as I am informed by truthful parties, ‘ scaled ” 12,460 feet 
of lumber. Add to this, according to the 
one-quarter for waste, and this sin 
wood. It was fifty- 
lumberman’s measure, 
gle stick contained 1 5,575 feet of 
two inches in diameter at the smaller end, — 
seventy-four at the larger, and was 102 feet long without a vis- 
ible knot. I myself have seen much larger trees of this last species, 
but it is rare to find any of quite such re 
nearly columnar. Near by was found the yew. 
To one acquainted 
with the way this plant appears in the Eastern St 
ates it might seem 
gular proportions, or so 
