Gelehrte Gesellschaften. 187 



Passing the gorge of the Columbia we come into the dense forests of 

 the Pacific Coast proper, where the number and magnitude of the trees is 

 greater than I have seen in any eastern or even tropical region. The trees 

 of several kinds here reach an altitude of three hundred feet, and often 

 stand so near together that all undergrowth is absent, and the horseman 

 makes his way through them with difficulty. On the lowlands the Douglass 

 spruce and the western arbor vitae are the most abundant. Locally, the 

 hemlock is common, and along the rivers the Northwestern cottonwood 

 (Populus trichocarpa T. & G.) Stands thick and attains a large size. Along 

 the smaller streams , and in swampy places , the Oregon ash (Fraxinus 

 Oregana Nutt.) and the arborescent alder (Alnus rhombifolia Nutt.), occur 

 in considerable numbers and attain about equal size, i. e. , a diameter of 

 one foot and a height of fifty or sixty feet. Scattered through this lowland 

 forest are the two common maples of the West (Acer macrophyllum Pursh 

 and A. circinnatum Pursh). Of these, the first grows sometimes to the 

 height of eighty feet with a diameter of trunk of twelve to fifteen inches, 

 and on young plants the leaves sometimes attain a breadth of a foot or 

 more. The vine-maple is a peculiar feature in the forests of the Lower 

 Columbia, Puget Sound and Vancouver's Island. It never becomes more 

 than six inches in diameter and several trunks usually spring from the same 

 root. These are very slender, droop, and, frequently reaching the ground, 

 take root at the summit. Where these interlacing trunks are numerous they 

 form a thicket which is almost impenetrable. 



On the higher and more rocky portions of the country the Western 

 baisam fir (Abies grandis Lindl.) and its congeners A. nobilis Lindl. and A. 

 amabilis Dougl. , are locally numerous and attain great size , i. e., reach a 

 height of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet, and a trunk 

 diameter of five to seven feet. With these, which form a distinct sub-genus, 

 are the omnipresent Douglass spruce , and Menzies spruce , formerly 

 known as Abies Menziesii Dougl. , but now generally called A. Sitchensis 

 Carr. Still higher , and reaching to the line of perpetual snow , are Pinus 

 flexilis James, var. albicaulis, and Tsuga Pattoniana Englm., the latter the 

 most beautiful of all conifers. Less common than the preceding conifers, 

 but locally abundant in the country bordering the Lower Columbia and 

 Puget Sound, are two cypresses (Chamsecyparis Lawsoniana Parlat. and C. 

 Nutkaensis Spach.). Of these , the first , sometimes called the ginger pine, 

 from the fragrance of its wood, is much admired and cultivated for its 

 beauty and esteemed for the excellence of the lumber it furnishes. Scarcely 

 less interesting to the botanist is the western yew (Taxus brevifolia Nutt.), 

 a tree often forty to sixty feet in height growing sparingly in the lower 

 portions of Oregon and Washington. Three species of juniper are scattered 

 over the dryer and more rocky parts of the country bordering the Columbia, 

 viz., Juniperus occidentalis Hook., in the foothills of the cascades , often an 

 erect tree 40 — 50 feet in height; J. Utahensis Englm., low an spreading, in 

 the interior ; and J. communis L. , generally distributed and closely resem- 

 bling in foliage, fruit and mode of growth, the eastern and European plant. 



Among the great conifers of the Pacific coast, two of the most gigantic 

 and valuable, the sugar pine (Pinus Lambertiana Dougl.) and the redwood 

 (Sequoia sempervirens Endl.) approach, and the first reaches the line of 

 the N. P. Railroad, though their habitat is more southern, and both are 

 important Clements in the resources of the country from which it will derive 

 much of its business. Of these, the sugar pine — nearly related to the eastern 

 white pine, by habit, foliage, cones and wood — is the monarch of the genus, 

 frequently reaching a heigt of 300 feet , with a diameter of from 10 to 15 

 feet. This grows chiefly in the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains 

 throughout Oregon and California. The redwood is even larger. It is found 

 only along the coast and about Port Orford forms forests, which surpass, in 

 the average dimensions of the trees, any others I have seen. The lumber 

 furnished by both these great trees is excellent ; and, like the white pine of 

 the East, they are sulFering such wholesale destruction as promises soon to 

 exhaust the supply they fumish. The next in intrinsic value as timber 

 trees, and, from their abundance, having even greater economic importance, 



