^I 



322 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. ix. 



It is not intended to give a description of the orography of the 

 province, though as above indicated this is closely connected with 

 the extension of the various species of plants. The following 

 general statement made by me in a note on agriculture and stock 

 raising and extent of cultivable land in the province,^ may, with 

 little alteration, be repeated here, as outlining the conditions to 

 be found within its area : — The flora of British Columbia as a 

 whole may be broadly divided into four great groups, indicating 

 as many varieties of climate, which may be named as follows : — 

 the West Coast, the Western Interior, the Canadian, and the 

 Arctic. The first, with an equable climate and heavy rainfall, 

 is characterized by a correspondent luxuriance of vegetation, 

 and especially of forest growth. This region is that west of the 

 Coast Range, and is well marked by the peculiarity of its plants. 

 In a few spots only — and these depending on the dryness of 

 several of the summer months owine; to local circumstances — does 

 a scanty representation of the drought-loving flora of the Cali- 

 fornian coast occur. The second is that of the southern part of 

 the interior table-land of the province, and presents as its most 

 striking feature a tendency to resemble in its flora the interior 

 basin of Utah and Nevada to the south and the drier plains east 

 of the Rocky Mountains. It may be said to extend northward 

 to about the 51st parallel, while isolated patches of a somewhat 

 similar flora occur on warm hill-sides and the northern banks of 

 rivers to beyond the Blackwater. In the northern part of the 

 interior of the province, just- such an assemblage of plants is 

 found as may be seen in many parts of eastern Canada, though 

 mingled with unfamiliar stragglers. This flora appears to run 

 completely across the continent north of the great plains, and 

 characterizes a region with moderately abundant rainfall, summers 

 not excessively warm, and cold winters. The arctic or alpine 

 flora is that of the higher summits of the Coast, Selkirk, Rocky 

 and other mountain ranges, where snow lies late in the summer. 

 Here plants lurk which deploy on the low grounds only on the 

 shores of Hudson Bay, the Icy Sea and Behring's Strait. 



In the following notes the Coniferse are placed first as having 

 the greatest importance both from an economic point of view, and 

 from the vast extent of country which they cover almost to the 

 exclusion of other trees. 



* Report Can. Pacific Railway, 1877. Appendix S. 



