January 6th, igoj.] PROCEEDINGS. xvii 



In the Selkirk range the Douglas Spruce and the Giant Cedar 

 (Thuja giga)itea) become abundant, and increase in size nearer 

 the coast, culminating in trees with a girth of 40 to 50 ft. in 

 Stanley Park, Vancouver. Going South, along the Pacific 

 Coast, the Californian Cedar (Libocedms deciirrens) replaces 

 the Giant Cedar of the North, and other interesting trees 

 with a limited distribution are met with. Thus the Californian 

 Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens ) is restricted to the moist 

 valleys of the Coast Range, while the Big Trees (Sequoia 

 gigantea) occur in a few scattered groves in the drier Sierra 

 Nevada, even at altitudes of 6,000 ft. Here they grow to a 

 height of 200 to 300 ft., attaining a girth of over 100 ft., and 

 reaching an age of 1,500 to 2,000 years. The forests in which 

 the Big Trees occur contain for the most part Yellow and 

 Sugar Pines. 



The foothills of the Sierra Nevada, with a smaller rainfall, 

 have a sparse vegetation consisting largely of evergreen shrubs 

 and trees, including several species of " Live Oak." Shrubby 

 Composites, Evening Primroses, and many plants with very 

 sticky leaves, so-called tar-weeds, are among the interesting forms 

 of vegetation. East of the Sierra Nevada the rainfall is very 

 slight, and large tracts of land and desert country extend 

 as far as the Great Salt Lake. The vegetation here is very 

 scanty indeed, consisting only of small spiny bushes of Sage- 

 brush (^Artemisia tridetitaia) and two or three members of the 

 Chenopodiaceae, a natural order characteristic of salt-plains. 



Professor Weiss illustrated his remarks with a number of 

 lantern slides, and exhibited herbarium specimens of many of 

 the plants referred to. 



