Rocky Mountain Rambles. 189 



sands of acres are covered by this weed in Washington and 

 Oregon. Where little openings had been made for farms our 

 eastern foxglove {Digitalis purpurea), the little Linaria cymbal- 

 aria and pansy {Viola tricolor) were running wild. The salal 

 {Gatilthcria Shallon), with black rather sweetish fruit, was 

 common with smaller specimens of spruce and hemlock. The 

 beach of the Pacific was only a few miles away. Here the 

 stunted pine {Pintis contorta) occurred, forming the first belt of 

 timber on the beach. This I believe to be difi"erent from the 

 P. Murrayana which Sudworth places with P. contorta. The 

 pine is followed by the Sitka spruce, hemlock and cedar. The 

 original of our cultivated strawberry {Fragaria californica) grew 

 abundantly on the sand dunes and beach away from the tides. 

 The country between the Wasatch Mountains in Utah to 

 the Cascades in Oregon has an interesting vernal flora, but the 

 flora of the Cascade Mountains of Washington is much like that 

 of western Oregon. There are forests of Douglas fir, or, as it is 

 known in Washington, the Washington fir, while in Oregon it is 

 commonly called the Oregon fir. That is the commercial name 

 for the timber. The magnificent forests of this species in Wash- 

 ington do not have an equal anywhere else in the United States; 

 and this is not surprising if we take into account the rainfall 

 which in the Puget Sound country is about fifty inches, though 

 more in some and less in other years, while up in the higher 

 Cascades, near Seattle, it is one hundred inches and even reaches 

 one hundred and fifty inches. Under such climatic conditions 

 the seeds of trees germinate readily and grow at once and con-, 

 tinue to make a vigorous growth. These great forests then are 

 due to the climatic conditions of the region. On the east slope 

 of the Cascades in Washington the rainfall is much less, and one 

 finds here the bull pine {Pinus ponderosa) interspersed occasion- 

 ally with the beautiful white pine {Pinus monticola) which some- 

 tim^es reaches a height of 200 feet and- a diameter of 6 feet, there 

 are many trees over 100 feet high and 3 or 4 feet in diameter. 

 It requires more m.oisture than the bull or yellow pine. The tree 

 resem.bles our eastern white pine but is m.ore slender and with 

 slender spreading or somewhat drooping branches; like the white 

 pine the leaves are bluish-green and glaucous. It is a more beau- 

 tiful tree than its eastern cousin. The Balm of Gilead poplar is 



