Trees 



77 



MOUNTAIN ALDER 



Alnus sinuata. Birch Family 



A small tree or shrub. Leaves: ovate, acuminate, obtuse or crenate 

 at the base. Flowers: aments of both kinds on long, slender peduncles. 



The Mountain Alder has rather dark bark, and bright 

 green leaves, which are doubly toothed, thin, and very 

 gummy when young. The staminate aments are pendulous, 

 like catkins, and the pistillate ones are rounded and erect. 



Alnus sitchensis, or Speckled Alder, has brown bark, and 

 broader leaves than the preceding species, these leaves are 

 acutely doubly-toothed, light green on both sides, and 

 speckled with white. This tree grows in wet places. 



WESTERN MOUNTAIN ASH 



Pyrus sambucifolia. Rose Family 



Leaves: alternate, pinnate; leaflets seven to fifteen, lanceolate, short- 

 pointed at the apex, sharply serrate, glabrous and dark green above, pale 

 and more or less pubescent beneath. Flowers: white, in terminal com- 

 pound cymes ; calyx-tube urn-shaped, five-lobed, not bracteolate ; petals 

 five, spreading, short-clawed. Fruit: a small, red, berry-like pome, bitter. 



This is the Rowan Tree of the mountain regions, and a 

 very handsome shrub or tree it is, sometimes attaining a 

 height of twenty feet, but usually growing only from six 

 to fifteen feet high. 



The leaves are dark green on the top and a much paler 

 hue beneath. The flower-buds are a delicate shade of 

 creamy pink, and turn white when they expand in the sun- 

 shine, the wide-open blossoms having a darkened appear- 

 ance in their centres, caused by the numerous stamens. 

 This shrub is found at great altitudes, growing close to the 

 edge of perpetual snow and bearing quantities of splendid 

 foliage and huge clustered cymes of soft-tinted flowers, 

 which diffuse an extremely pungent odour, 



