ECONOMIC BOTANY OF ALASKA. 77 
having a slight but delicate fragrance. It flourishes best in 
open places at sea level, where it is about six feet high, but 
it is also common in rich creek bottoms and deltas. 
MENYANTHES CRISTA-GALLI has the widest range in alti- 
tude of any plant growing in this region, occurring from 
snow-line, where it grows in great profusion on the wet, 
slopes, down to sea level, where it finds its way by the me- 
dium of the sphagnous marshes, blooming from about the 
first of June until August, according to elevation. On look- 
ing at a mountain side from sea level in early summer one 
is struck by the vivid green of the slopes in spots near $now- 
line and is apt to attribute it to the presence of grasses or 
sedges, but on examination finds it to be this plani. In 
early fall the first severe frost is readily indicated by the 
Tusty brown appearance of the leaves at these spots long be- 
fore a killing frost has reached sea level. 
CALTHA BIFLORA has about the same range as the last 
named, but does not reach quite as great an elevation; is 
. More abundant near sea level, and follows the moist creek 
banks and deltas instead of the sphagnous marshes. 
Kumurenta coonEYz, Greene (Ranunculus Cooleyx, of 
Vasey and Rose), is rather a rare plant, its habitat being 
clefts in rocky bluffs and cliffs about snow-line, flowering 1n 
July about as soon as the snow disappears, the petals drop- 
ping off in a few days, the plant rapidly maturing seed. It 
Sometimes, though rarely, finds its way as a waif down to 
lower elevations by means of lake and beaver-pond margins. 
he plant bears a closer resemblance to Caltha than to 
Ranunculus. 
GAULTHERIA SHALLON (Sal-lal), in Haida, SKrTHAN, is not 
uncommon on the mainland, where it follows the borders of 
sphagnous marshes, also hillsides and ridges in the less 
densely wooded sections, not reaching elevations above 800 
