VOL. II. | Flora of the Olympics. 265 
met with was the manzanita (Arctostaphylos tomentosa) of the 
northern slopes and plains, now collected in the unsatisfactory state 
of green fruit. Next the common prince's pine (Chimaphila um- 
bellata), was very abundant, its waxy, whitish flowers always appear- 
ing rather out of place in the midst of the dark, leathery leaves. 
Scattered here and there were the bright, handsome stems of the 
madrone (Arbutus Menziesii). This tree well merits the praise be- 
stowed upon it by Bret Harte, for though it does not grow as large 
as in Middle California, it occasionally reaches a diameter of two 
feet, and when the outer loose bark has fallen off, as it often does, 
exposing the smooth, bright cinnamon color of its inner bark, when 
_ the deluge of pearly flowers lights up the glistening large leaves, or 
the ripened fruit causes the whole tree to look like a great tongue 
of flame, it is a picture in itself. Next I was surprised to find a 
bush generally found high up in the mountains and along creeks, 
Pachystima Myrsinites. Its growing in such a location convinced 
me more firmly than ever that this plant is destined sometime to be 
largely used, and to become a favorite when used, as a border to 
walks in handsome grounds. As the firs grew thicker, the beauti- 
ful and fragrant false Solomon’s seal (.Smtlacina racemosa ), raised its 
white clusters of flowers, and near at hand was the western winter- 
green, Pyrola rotundifolia vat. bracteata, a very unmeaning name 
but the only one it has. Then a still greater surprise was in store 
for me, for here was the elk-grass (Xerophyllum tenax), in great 
profusion. This striking Liliaceous plant had never before been 
found by me at such low altitudes. It is most frequent upon our 
snow mountains just as one is emerging from the timber and _ near- 
ing the snow line. It isa wonderfully handsome plant with its mass 
of long, gray, recurved leaves, which are as tough as leather and 
cut like a knife—its long stalk shooting upwards as the flowers grad- 
ually expand toa height of three or four feet, and surmounted till 
late in the season by a tuft of snow-white flowers, which are con- 
stantly renewed by fresh ones higher up as those below wither away 
into the fruiting stage. Never on the whole trip did I so miss the 
camera, which should have been with us (and arrived after I had 
left the party !) as when I came upon whole fields of these plants 
several weeks later, near the snow-line and just in their prime. It 
is hard, when looking upon a whole “ park’’ of these plants to re- 
alize that they have not been planted by the hand of man and tended 
