PIPER FLORA OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON. 15 



Museum, but good sets of his specimens are in the Gray and Torroy 

 herbaria, and many others are in the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Sciences. 



PICKERING AND BRACKENRIDGE. 



Dr. Charles Pickering and Mr. W. D. Brackenridge were the 

 botanists of the exploring expedition under Commodore Wilkes. 

 Their botanical explorations so far as Washington is concerned were 

 briefly as follows : May 2, 1841, the expedition was at Port Discovery, 

 remaining there until the Gth instant. On the trip up Puget Sound 

 stops were made at Appletree Cove and Port Madison. The expedi- 

 tion reached Fort Nisqually May 11, which place became the 

 headquarters for the explorations in the interior. Pickering and 

 Brackenridge were attached to Lieutenant Johnson's party, which 

 left Nisqually May 20 and crossed the Cascade Mountains by way of 

 the Indian trail up White River. They reached the sinnmit on the 

 26th instant, remaining there two days, descending on the east side 

 down the Spipen or Naches River. Leaving this river near its 

 mouth the party traveled northward to the Yakima and thence over 

 the Wenache Mountains to the Wenache River. P'rom here the route 

 was up the Columbia to Fort Okanogan, which was reached June 8. 

 June 10 the journey was resumed eastward up the Columbia, and 

 Fort Colville was reached June 15. From Fort Colville the party 

 traveled southward, reaching Lapwai, Idaho, on June 25. A two 

 days' trip from here brought the party to Fort Walla Walla, where 

 they remained until July 4. From here their route led up the 

 Yakima and Naches rivers and thence over the mountains by the 

 outgoing route. 



Several other exploring parties were also sent out from Nisqually, 

 but the only botanical specimens collected by the expedition seem to 

 have been gathered by Pickering and Brackenridge. 



The results are included in two of the large volumes devoted to 

 the scientific results of the expedition. Unfortunately the original 

 labels of the specimens seem in some way to have become intermixed, 

 with the result that a good many plants confined to eastern Wash- 

 ington bear such labels as " Port Discovery " and " Nisqually," wliile 

 other species confined to western Washington are labeled " Walla 

 Walla," or " North Fork of the Columbia." On some sheets eastern 

 and western Washington species are mixed, and mounted over a 

 single label. With the details of the party's itinerary known, it is 

 possible, how^ever, to tell with some accuracy where the specimens 

 must have been gathered. 



