THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 87 



showing accurately the leaves on the new as well as the 

 old canes, the flowers, form of inflorescence and the fruit. 

 Westminster, Vt. 



IN A WASHINGTON MARSH. 



BY A. S. FOSTER. 



I^UT your finger on the map in the northwest part of 

 the United States, trace east from Puget Sound some 

 forty miles until you find Mt. Baker, one of the many 

 grand peaks of the Cascade Range. Here in the piedmont 

 <Iistrict, within twenty miles of his summit may be found 

 not only beautiful scenery of woodland and valley but 

 many rare forms of plant life — a wonderful volume spread 

 out for the reading of any naturalist, and especially so for 

 any ol our friends who are familiar with the Eastern flora 

 of this great country. Here the geologist may uncover 

 the remains of a tropical vegetation of some carboniferous 

 period, and, on the other hand, in an hour's ride, study 

 glacial action at first hand, or turn his attention to the 

 varied effects of glacial drift and denudations of the Ice 

 Age, or listen to the scream of our embleinatic bird. 



On the flanks of Mt. Baker are many bogs once sub- 

 alpine lakes of small area, which now contain many inter- 

 esting forms of vegetable life. These bogs are surrounded 

 with the giant trees of the region such as Douglas spruce 

 {Psendotsnga taxifolhi) growing with very thick bark and 

 merging into the variety s«/?erosa. Even the Sitka spruce 

 {Picea sitchensis) flourishes on the sides of the ridges. The 

 giant shingle cedar {lliiija plicata) is often found six feet 

 in diameter. Our hemlock {Tsuga heterophylla) is inter- 

 spersed with other conifers often preempting the more 

 favorable locations. These trees make the prominent 

 features of the forest which may surround one of these 

 bogs. 



A hemlock straggling into the swamp becomes decrepit 

 and prematurely- old. Trees apparently forty or fifty 

 years old are not over eight or ten feet high, reminding 

 one of their Japanese cousins one may see in the curio- 



