214 WILLIAM S. COOPER 



In these four primitive habitats: rock surface, fragmental 

 accumulation (mainly talus), moraine, and shingle flat, four 

 lines of succession originate, which we may term the Rock 

 Surface Succession, the Talus Succession, the Moraine Succes- 

 sion, and the Shingle Flat Succession. All culminate in the 

 establishment of a stable and permanent forest formation, the 

 CUmax Forest, which is the saijie for all the successions within 

 a single climatic zone. It is not strange that in this locality the 

 climax forests of the two zones are much alike, since here we find 

 ourselves in the transition between the Rocky Mountain and 

 Pacific Coast Forests. The forest of the Montane Zone is 

 that of the Pacific coast; that of the Subalpine Zone belongs 

 rather to the Rocky Mountain region. For the same reason 

 the successions in the two zones are much alike, though with 

 important differences in many details. 



B. THE CLIMAX FORESTS 



The Climax Forest in the Montane Zone is of the Pacific 

 Coast type. It extends up the valley of the Fraser and up the 

 Grand Fork to Lake Kinney. Much has been burned, but at 

 one point between the mouth of the Grand Fork and Lake 

 Kinney the trail passes through two miles of very typical British 

 Columbia montane forest. A brief description of this will 

 indicate the general character of the climax forest of the lower 

 zone. 



The most abundant tree is Thuja plicata D. Don. It attains 

 a fairly large size, one being found which was two meters in 

 diameter. Next in abundance is Picea Engelmanni Engelm.; 

 and other tree species are Ahies lasiocarpa Nutt., Tsuga hetero- 

 phylla Sarg., and Pseudotsuga mucronata Sudw. Young tree 

 growth is mainly Abies and Thuja. A shrub stratum includes 

 Acer glabrum Torr., Azaleastrum alhiflorum (Hook.) Rydb., 

 Menziesia ferruginea Smith, and locally, Fatsia horrida (Sm.) 

 B. & H. The herbaceous stratum includes, among many, 

 Phegopteris Dryopteris (L.) Fee, Equisetum sylvaticum L., Clintonia 

 uni flora (Schult.) Kunth, Moneses uni flora (L.) A. Gray, Pyrola 

 uliginosa Torr. Mosses are abundant. 



