138 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



29. NOTES ON THE PLANTS. 



The principal vegetation of the Peibylov group: Absence of trees. — That spruce trees can be made 

 to live transplanted from indigenous localities to the barren slopes of the Aleutian islands has been demonstrated; 

 but in liviug, these trees scarcely grow to any appreciable degree. Evergreens were transferred to Oonalashka, 

 when Veuiaininov was at work there in 1830-'35. They are still standing and keep green, yet the change 

 which such a long lapse of time should produce by growth has been as difficult to determine as it is to find 

 evidence of increased altitude to the mountains around them since these Sitkan trees were planted, with pious 

 hope, at their feet fifty years ago. Though I can readily understand why the salmon berries of Oonalashka should 

 not do well on the seal-islands (still I think they would at the Garden cove of St. George), nevertheless I believe 

 that the whortleberries of that section would thrive at many places, if carefully transplanted to these localities, on 

 the southern slopes of Cemetery ridge at Zapaduie, the southern slopes of Telegraph hill, and eastern fall of Tolstoi 

 peninsula down to the shore of the lagoon. They might also do well set out at picked places about the Big lake 

 and on Northeast point, around the little lake thereon. If these bushes really throve here, they would be the 

 means of adding greatly to the comfort of the inhabitants; for the Oonalashka whortleberry is an exceeding pleasant, 

 juicy fruit, large and well adapted for canning and preserving. Having less sunshine here than at Illoolook, 

 it may not ripen up as well flavored, but would, I think, succeed. The roots of the plants when brought up from 

 Oonalashka in April or early May, should be kept moist by wet moss wrappings, from the moment they are first taken 

 up until they are reset, with the tops well pruned back, on the Pribylov islands. The experiment is surely worth 

 all the trouble of making, and I hope it will be undertaken. 



The characteristic "talneek": Salix. — The only suggestion of a tree found growing on the Pribylov 

 group is the hardy "talneek" or creeping willow; there are three species of the genus Salix found here, viz, 

 reticulata, polaris, and arctica; the first named is the most common and of largest growth ; it progresses exactly as 

 a cucumber vine does in our gardens; as soon as it has made from the seed a sprout of six inches or a foot upright 

 from the soil, then it droops over and crawls along prostrate upon the earth, rocks, and sphagnum ; some of the 

 largest talneek trunks will measure eight or ten feet in decumbent length along the ground, and are as large 

 around the stump as an average wrist of man. The usual size, however, is very, very much less; while the stems 

 of polaris and arctica scarcely ever reach the diameter of a pencil case, or the procumbent length of two feet. 



Although Bubus chamcemorus is a tree shrub, and is found here very commonly distributed, yet it grows such a 

 slender, diminutive bush, that it gives uo thought whatever of its being anything of the sort. The herbs, grasses, 

 and ferns tower above it on all sides. 



Familiar and lovely flowering plants. — Perhaps no one plant that flowers on the seal-islands is more 

 conspicuous or abundant than is the Saxifraga oppositifolia ; it rises over all localities, rank and tall in rich 

 locations, to stems scarcely one inch high on the thin, poor soil of hill summits and sides; densely cespitose, with 

 leaves all imbricated in four rows; and flowers almost sessile. I think that at least ten well-defined species of this 

 order, Saxifragacece, exist on the Pribylov group. The Ranunculacece are not so numerous; but, still, a buttercup 

 growing in every low slope, where you may chauce to wander, is always a pleasant reminder of pastures at home; 

 and, also, a suggestion of the farm is constantly made by the luxuriant inflorescence of the wild mustard, Cruciferw. 

 The chickweed, Caryophyllacce, is well represented, and also the familiar dandelion, Taraxacum palustre. The 

 lichens, Thallophytes, and the mosses, Musci, are in their greatest exuberauce, variety, and beauty here; and 

 myriads of yellow poppies, Papaveracw, are nodding their graceful heads in the sweeping of the wind — they are 

 the first flowers to bloom, and the last to fade. 



The chief economic value rendered by the botany of the Pribylov islands to the natives, is the abundance of 

 the basket-making rushes, Juncacw, which the old "barbies" gather in the margins of many of the lakes and 

 pools. 



Mushrooms at St. Paul. — The fungoid growths on the Pribylov islands are abundant and varied, especially 

 in and around the vicinity of the rookeries and the killing-grounds. On the west slope of the Black Bluffs at St. 

 Paul, the mushroom, Agaricus campestris, was gathered in the season of 1872 by the natives, and eaten by one or 

 two families in the village, who had learned from the Russians to cook them nicely. These seal-island mushrooms 

 have deeper tones of pink and purple red iu their gills than do those of my gathering in the states. I kicked over 

 many large spherical " puff-balls", Lycoperdons, in my tundra walks; myriads of smaller ones, Lycoperdon einereum (.*), 

 cover patches near the spots where carcasses hive long since rotted, together with a pale-gray fungus, Agaricus 

 Jimiputris, exceedingly delicate and frosted exquisitely. Some ligneous fungi, ClavaricB, will be found attached to 

 the decaying stems of Salix reticulata (creeping willows). The irregularity of the annual growing of the agarics, 

 and their rapid growth when they do appear, make their determination excessively difficult; they are as unstable 

 in their visits as are several of the Lepidoptera. The cool humidity of climate during the summer season on the 

 Pribylov islands is especially adapted to the mysterious, but beautiful growth of these plants — the apotheosis of 

 decay. The coloring of several varieties is very bright and attractive, shading from a rjjpulish scarlet to a pallid 

 white. ^ 



