The Plant World 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY. 



Vol. u. august, 1899. No. 11. 



BOTANICAL NOTES ON THE WAY TO DAWSON, 



ALASKA. 



By R. S. Wi Ilia ins. 



1WAS unable to give any particular attention to the botanical feat- 

 ures of the vicinity of Dyea and lower Dyea creek, but the 

 whole length of the stream is undoubtedly most interesting col- 

 lecting ground, for it flows down past two or three dead glaciers 

 (whose jagged terminations can be seen well up on the mountain 

 sides, their rich blue strongly contrasting with the surrounding glis- 

 tening white snow), cutting a way through open hillsides, dark, thick 

 forests and a narrow, rocky canyon, with abundant streams and 

 springs coming in on either side throughout its length. Moreover, 

 the region is comparatively warm and moist as compared with the 

 interior. At Sheep Camp, near the head of the creek, we remained 

 from March 28 to April 7, busy in getting our goods over the Chilcoot 

 summit, but here also I was not able to do much collecting owing both 

 to lack of time and the deep snow, it covering the ground to a depth 

 of three or four feet almost everywhere. The only trees noticed were 

 Tsiiga mertensiana, the commonest species furnishing good logs up to 

 16 or 20 inches in diameter and 16 or 18 feet long, for a small saw 

 mill near; a Picca Eugelmanni, and a cottonwood, growing up to two 

 feet in diameter, but not very common. Specimens of Alniis, Betula 

 and Salix were abundant, as well as some few other bushes or shrubs. 

 I noticed willow catkins bursting their buds as early as March 28, in 

 the warmer situations. Mosses and lichens were flourishing wherever 

 observed. A fine lichen, common on trees, had much the habit of 

 Everiiia vulpina, but was of a reddish-brown color with the finer 

 branches grayish and bearing globose apothecia. The largest and 

 finest fruiting specimens of several species of Cladonia I have 

 ever seen, were abundant. Another small species of this genus, 

 I think, was growing on bare rock. It consisted of a slender, upright. 



