TEANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



EOYAL SCOTTISH AEBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



i8. Trees of Western America.^ 



By F. R. S. Balfour. 



My wife and I have recently made a trip to the Pacific coast, 

 and perhaps our chief object in so doing was to see the trees of 

 that region, the richest belt of coniferous timber in the world. 



I have twice lived for eighteen months at a time in 

 Washington, Oregon, and California, and have made a good 

 many shooting and fishing expeditions into the western moun- 

 tains, but never before has my sole object in such expeditions 

 been to see the best of the timber. I hope to have something to 

 say of our wanderings which will be of interest to those Members 

 of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society who are here to-day ; 

 but I wish it to be understood that I can merely tell you of the 

 observations of a lover of trees, who has little intimate know- 

 ledge of botany. 



We sailed in July to Quebec, and crossed the continent by 

 the C.P.R. We stayed for a few days at the Lake Louise 

 Hotel at Laggan in the Rockies, about 6000 feet above sea- 

 level, and 960 miles west of Winnipeg. The hotel lies at the 

 north end of Lake Louise, six miles from the railway, and 1000 

 feet above it. Soon after leaving Calgary, the youngest and 

 one of the most prosperous towns on the continent, the train 

 begins to wind its way up the Bow River, with the towering 

 Rockies to the north and south. The first tree we have seen 

 for over a thousand miles is the ubiquitous Pinus contorfa, 

 springing up thick and straight in all directions. No tree in 

 America covers such an area — from Alaska to Colorado. It is 

 well called the lodge pole pine by the Indians. 



^ Lecture delivered, with lantern slides, to the Royal Scottish Arboricultural 

 Society at their Annual Meeting, 5th February 1908. 



VOL. XXI. PART II. I 



