LIST OF TREES AND SHRUBS. 307 



lower country through which the canoe route lies. It crosses 

 the dividing range, descends to the mouth of the Columbia, 

 and is common in the Northern States. The Chippeways, in 

 whose country it grows abundantly, do not appear to have dis- 

 covered its admirable diuretic qualities. C. maculata is a 

 more southern species : it was gathered by us on the great lakes, 

 but is not common north of the Middle States. 



Jasmine. — Fi-axinits sambucifolia, black ash, is said to 

 grow in Virginia, and by Dr. Asa Gray to range from Maine to 

 Wisconsin. It also inhabits New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and 

 Canada. F. americana, white ash, was found by Lieut. Abert 

 on the Arkansas, high up on the western slope of the Missis- 

 sippi valley. It is a large forest tree in the Northern States. 

 It grows at Pictou, also on Lake Superior, Rainy Lake, 

 the River Winipeg, and the banks of the Saskatchewan, 

 to latitude 54° north, where it is still a tree. F. pubescens, red 

 ash, does not grow thicker than a man's thigh on Rainy River, 

 where it terminates near the 49th parallel. It extends south- 

 wards to the Middle States, and also across the mountains to 

 Oregon. 



Eleagnaceje. — Eleagjius argentca, silver berry, is a very 

 common shrub on the banks of rivers throughout the basins of 

 the Saskatchewan and Mackenzie, up to the 68th parallel of 

 latitude. Its dry husky berries are covered with the same 

 silvery epidermis that gives the hoary appearance to the leaves, 

 and are used by the Kutchin to ornament their dresses. This 

 apparently sapless fruit is often found in the stomachs of geese 

 on their northerly migrations. It is the ivapow-muskwa- 

 minan, or " white-bear berry," of the Crees ; and the branches, 

 which harden in drying, are used by the natives for making 

 pipe-stems. It ascends the Saskatchewan, and occurs in 

 Canada, but does not find a place in Gray's "Flora of the 

 Northern States." Shepherdia canadensis grows from Vermont 

 and Wisconsin northwards to beyond the arctic circle, and 

 is very common on the Mackenzie. Its small, red, juicy, 

 very bitter, and slightly acid, berry is useful for making an 

 extempore beer, which ferments in twenty-four hours, and is 



x 2 



