VOL. I1.] , Flora of the Olympics. 259 
Next I found a not very common tree, Pursh’s buckthorn ( Rham- 
nus Purshiana). This seldom grows larger than a large bush, 
_ though I have occasionally seen it a foot and a half in diameter in 
the salt water marshes back of Long Beach, Ilwaco. Its large, 
handsome leaves, its smooth, mottled trunk, and its medicinal prop- 
erties save it from the charge of insignificance. 
Hard by I came upon one of the commonest of our small trees, 
the early willow (Salix flavescens). If the law of contraries holds 
good, if the most delicious odors are compounded from the most 
disagreeable substances in the famed city of Cologne, as is said to 
be the case, there should be some virtue in this tree, sanitary or 
odoriferous; for a more fetid, horrid smell can hardly be imagined 
than that from the broken twigs of this tree in early spring. 
In strong contrast with this Mephistopheles among trees, stood 
near the Ithuriel of our northern woods, the western flowering-dog- 
wood ( Cornus Nuttallii). This tree is never commonplace, whether 
putting forth its green buds in the early spring, whether lighting 
up the forests with its captivating contrasts of light green leaves and 
-milk-white flowers, or whether in fall it dyes the woods with the pur- 
ple, saffron, or crimson of its leaves, and the scarlet of its fruit clus- 
ters. I have traveled through miles of woods, between Portland 
and Eagle Creek in Clackamas County, which have been rendered. 
entrancing from the beautiful effects of its flowers and the intoxica~ 
tion of their delicious odor. I know of no scent so far reaching and: 
yet so delicate, unless it be that of the wild grape or the yellow jas- 
mine of the Southern woods. The wood is very fine-grained and 
would “work up”’ well into smaller articles of utility under the 
turner’s lathe. 
The last tree found here was the red-berried cherry ( Prunus 
emarginata var. mollis), noticeable from its small, smooth, slender 
trunks, its medicinal properties and wood fine for the.turner. 
_ The salt marsh near by, and the shores of the canal, yielded me 
quite a number of plants, very few of which, however, are in any 
degree attractive, save to the enthusiast. These were sand spurrey 
(Lepigonum medium), cud-weed ( Gnaphalium purpureum), Fran- 
seria bipinnatifida (a kind of trailing burdock, common along the 
ch from Fort Canby to the recesses of the Sound), salt marsh 
] lantain ( Pliantago maritima ), silver-weed ( Potentilla Anserina ame 
pretty plant with its large, yellow flowers, large, compound leaves 
