THE FORESTS OF OREGON 



ney into the wilderness. And besides these 

 there is a charming underworld of ferns and 

 mosses flourishing gloriously beneath all the 

 woods. 



Everybody loves wild woods and flowers 

 more or less. Seeds of all these Oregon ever- 

 greens and of many of the flowering shrubs and 

 plants have been sent to almost every coun- 

 try under the sun, and they are now growing 

 in carefully tended parks and gardens. And 

 now that the ways of approach are open one 

 would expect to find these woods and gar- 

 dens full of admiring visitors reveling in their 

 beauty like bees in a clover-field. Yet few 

 care to visit them. A portion of the bark of 

 one of the California trees, the mere dead 

 skin, excited the wondering attention of thou- 

 sands when it was set up in the Crystal Pal- 

 ace in London, as did also a few peeled spars, 

 the shafts of mere saplings from Oregon or 

 Washington. Could one of these great silver 

 firs or sugar pines three hundred feet high 

 have been transplanted entire to that exhibi- 

 tion, how enthusiastic would have been the 

 praises accorded to it! 



Nevertheless, the countless hosts waving 

 at home beneath their own sky, beside their 

 own noble rivers and mountains, and standing 

 on a flower-enameled carpet of mosses thou- 



311 



