First Report on the Flora of Wyoming. 63 



banks. The smaller vegetation likewise includes a much 

 greater number of species, each of which apparently 

 strives for the mastery and produces the most beautiful 

 confusion of forms. 



THE MOUNTAIN FLORA. 



Some of the mountain ranges are quite heavily tim- 

 bered, notably the Medicine Bow and Wind River ranges. 

 The Laramie Mountains are wooded only in part and 

 some of these areas very sparsely. Other ranges are 

 known to be wooded, but I speak only of those I have 

 visited. The summits of the Laramie Mountains are 

 mostly rounded and undulating, and on these we find a 

 scattering growth of Rocky Mountain Yellow Pine {Pinus 

 ponderosa scopulornni) and occasionally, some straggling, 

 stunted specimens of the Virginia Juniper. Wherever 

 we find the range broken by more abrupt slopes, deeper 

 canons and water courses, the arboreal vegetation as- 

 sumes the character of a forest, and in some districts fur- 

 nishes valuable lumber. This is the case at Laramie 

 Peak and on some of the spurs that run out from it. The 

 forests consist mostly of Douglas Spruce, Rocky Moun- 

 tain White Pine and Lodge Pole Pine. 



Much the larger part of the Medicine Bow Mountains 

 are heavily wooded, and it is from these forests that the 

 larger part of the native lumber used in the southern part 

 of the state is obtained. About the same species prevail 

 as in the Laramie Mountains, with the addition of the 

 Blue Spruce and Engelmann's Spruce. The White Pine 

 {^Pinwi flexiliiis) and Douglas Spruce form much the larger 

 part of the whole. The latter, along the streams at the 

 foot of the ranges, reaches its greatest size and it grad- 

 —6 



