PART I] MOUNTAIN VEGETATION IN AMERICA 141 



a small saw-mill near where I stopped for some days, and 

 several yokes of oxen were constantly occupied in dragging 

 Pine logs to it. The owner never thought of bringing anything 

 smaller to this than a log 3 or 4 feet in diameter in its 

 smallest part, and usually left 100 feet or so of the 

 portion of the tree above this on the ground where it fell, as 

 useless. What is it that causes the tree-growth to be so noble 

 there ? Soil has very little to do with it. I often saw the trees 

 luxuriating where there was not a particle of what we call soil, 

 and, indeed, in places where 25 feet or so of the whole 

 surface of the earth had been washed away by the gold-miners. 

 A bright sun for nearly the whole year, and an abundance of 

 moisture from the Pacific Ocean, explains the matter. This 

 should draw our attention to the fact that, in planting, and 

 especially in the planting of coniferous trees, we pay far too 

 much attention to supplying them with rich soil, and far too 

 little consideration to the climate in which we have to plant. 



ALPINE FLOWERS ON THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 



There is a foot or two of snow in some places on November 

 15, 1870; but the time for very deep snow has not yet come, 

 and we are fortunately in time to see a patch of alpine plants 

 here and there before they are tucked in under their wintry 

 shroud. What are these brown tufts like withered moss among 

 the rocks and boulders on exposed spots, some of them 

 cushioned low and flat ; others looking as if moss had assumed 

 a shrubby habit, and died full of years, at 3 inches high 

 perhaps, on a gouty stem nearly as thick as the finger? 

 These are little Phloxes, withered almost beyond hope by the 

 heats of summer ; but pull up one, and the old roots are seen 

 sending out a mass of fragile feeders in the snow-moistened 

 earth, and in the very centre of each juniper-like truss of 

 prickly leaves may be discerned a small speck of green. 

 When the 20 feet of snow melts in spring, and the sun 

 warms the saturated earth, these mites of Phloxes will be to 



