NOTES ON THE DOUGLAS FIR. 23 



influence felt at Hope. The climatic conditions, as regards 

 temperature and rainfall, are not very different in the two 

 localities, but in floristic surveys carried out by Government 

 botanists, the inclusion has been noted in the ground flora at 

 Hope of a number of species that are to be regarded as more 

 typical of the semi-arid regions of the Interior than of the Coastal 

 regions. 



In The Forests of British Columbia, it is stated that the 

 Douglas fir reaches its best development when the rainfall is 

 between 50-60 inches, not more than 5 per cent, of which is in 

 the form of snow. No rainfall records are available for the 

 Hope district, but the rainfall recorded at the nearest station of 

 Agassiz, some distance westwards, is 53'2 7 inches, although this 

 is probably somewhat in excess of the rainfall at Hope. In 

 Vancouver Island the rainfall varies from 41 inches (Nanaimo) 

 on the eastern coast, where the Douglas fir attains its best 

 development, to 100 inches on the west coast outside the 

 Douglas fir area. 



The temperature conditions at Hope, as shown by local records, 

 are similar to those at Vancouver. The coldest month is 

 January, when the average temperature is 33° F., or 2*6° lower 

 than at Vancouver (City), and slightly lower than the average 

 temperature for high-lying localities in the middle Highlands 

 of Scotland, e.g. Kingussie, where the average temperature for 

 January is 347° (Table IV.). In the warmest months — July 

 and August — the temperature at Hope averages 62-5°, the same 

 as that of Vancouver, and 6° higher than at Aberdeen. 



Judging from the rainfall and temperature records, there 

 would not seem to be any reason for the existence of different 

 types of forest at Hope and farther westwards, but, as already 

 explained, the presence of species in the ground flora more 

 typical of semi-arid regions, seem to indicate a lesser atmo- 

 spheric humidity in the Hope district. The characteristics that 

 differentiate the Hope forests from those farther westwards are 

 of the type that one would associate with greater dryness. 



The Douglas fir at Hope does not attain such a large size as 

 in the regions with a more typically coast-like climate, seldom 

 attaining a height greater than 120 feet, but the climatic con- 

 ditions are even less favourable to the associate species than to 

 the Douglas fir itself, which can thrive better in a dry climate 

 than Thuya gigantea, or Tsuga heterophylla. These are repre- 



