18 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



sight than I picked up my three cones and some 

 twigs of the trees and made the quickest possible 

 retreat ... to the camp." 



In such picturesque fashion, were the first seeds 

 of what is perhaps the noblest of all pines procured 

 for European planting; but the tree with which 

 Douglas's name is particularly associated is the 

 Douglas spruce or fir Pseudotsuga Douglasii 

 which is common in all the coniferous forests of 

 California, but attains its best development in Ore- 

 gon and Washington. It is the lumberman's Ore- 

 gon pine used extensively in building throughout 

 the Pacific coast. A variety with larger cones, 

 peculiar to Southern California, is locally known as 

 big-cone spruce. 



To the Indians, with whom Douglas in his wilder- 

 ness wanderings often came in contact, the indus- 

 trious gatherer of leaves and flowers was a sub- 

 ject of considerable curiosity, and Indian fashion, 

 they gave him a descriptive nick-name, which meant 

 "the man of grass." He left California in 1832, 

 to meet a tragic death in the Sandwich Islands. 

 While botanizing there he fell into a pit dug to trap 

 wild animals and was gored to death by a savage 

 bull which had fallen in before him. When Doug- 

 las's mangled remains were found, a dog that had 



