1869.] BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY. 371 



(Abies Douglasii) is, perhaps, the most common, and grows 

 sometimes to the height of three hundred feet. It does not, how- 

 ever, attain the diameter of some others, nine to twelve feet being 

 as large as I have seen it. 



" Menzies's spruce (Abies Menziesii) is the giant in respect to 

 diameter. I have seen one of fifteen feet, and they are said, as 

 are also the cedars, sometimes to reach twenty-five feet. This 

 latter spruce is only found near the coast. The Cedar here is 

 Tlivja gigantea, the great Arbor Vitae, and is a very handsome 

 tree. I think, however, the handsomest of them all is the Noble 

 Fir (Picea nobilis). It is not quite so large as some of the 

 others, but is more graceful. It usually grows in thick forests, 

 and has a straight, slender stem, from two to three feet in diame- 

 ter and one hundred and fifty feet without branches, with a grace- 

 ful bend perhaps fifty feet in height above. A species of hemlock 

 is common, especially near the coast, which bears a general 

 resemblance to that of Canada, yet is not, I think, the same. It 

 grows to two hundred or two hundred and fifty feet, and seven to 

 nine feet in diameter. There is also a pine, but I do not know 

 the species ; it is not as common as the others I have mentioned. 



"An Oak (Quercus Garri/ana) is the most common deciduous 

 tree. It is found all through the Willamette Valley, and, in the 

 northern part of it is the only oak, as far as I know. An Ash is 

 also common near water. Along streams, Alder, Vine, Maple, 

 Large-leaved Maple, Wild Cherry, a kind of Crab Apple, and 

 some other trees form a margin of green. 



" The flowers of the fields and woods are most of them different 

 from their Eastern congeners, and where the same kinds are found 

 they have probably been introduced. Dandelion, Sorrel, Oxeye 

 Daisy, and others have come to plague the farmer, — Sorrel, 

 especially, being very widely spread and troublesome, while Wild 

 Oats, Cheat, and Fern (mostly Pteris aquilina), of indigenous 

 growth, are obstinate possessors of the soil. 



" In the Ranunculus family, a kind of Coptis is common in the 

 deep woods, also, a pretty Anemone, an Actsea, and a Thalic- 

 trum, besides one that I cannot find described, while in the open 

 ground several kinds of Ranunculus and Delphinium are common. 

 Two species belonging to the Barberry family, difi'ering chiefly in 

 size, go by the name of Oregon Grape, and another (Aehhjs 

 tripTiylla) has odd triangular and three pointed radical leaves, 

 which, when dry, are used to scent clothes, etc. The Yellow 



