MYSTERIES AND REVELATIONS OF THE PLANT WORLD 



1275 



Sierra, the Olympic and the Cascade Mountains the 

 grandest and most remarkable forest of the world, which 

 stretches from California northward to the limit of trees 

 in Alaska, through more than two thousand miles of 

 latitude. 



From California to Puget Sound is a forest of enor- 

 mous redwoods, yellow pines, Douglas firs, western 

 hemlock and other evergreens, including the remarkable 

 isolated groves of giant sequoias containing trees of 

 almost incredible size and age. But not only the great 

 sequoias but also the redwoods and firs are giants, often 

 reaching a height of two hundred to three hundred feet. 

 In these forests the little Douglas squirrel and a number 

 of small birds live permanently in the tree tops and, as 

 one boy expressed it to me, 



V.Vi 



can only be studied through 

 a telescope. 



In extent, in density, in 

 the kinds and size of their 

 trees, these forests have no 

 rival on our planet. 



Besides the fascinating 

 questions regarding the 

 size, the distributions and 

 survival of their component 

 species they present another 

 perplexing problem : They 

 are the most exclusively 

 coniferous forests in the 

 world. Broad-leaved trees 

 here and there make up six 

 per cent of the whole, but 

 in many regions they form 

 only a small fraction of one 

 per cent. 



Very few representatives 

 of our eastern forest re- 

 gions can be found here. 

 There are no elms, no 

 hickories, no chestnuts, 

 no catalpas, persimmons, 

 sassafras, magnolias ; no 

 linden, no tulip trees, no 

 locusts ; and many other 

 whole genera found from 

 the Atlantic coast to the plains are entirely absent. 



Several oaks, a few maples, one birch, one ash and an 

 alder are among the scant representatives of broad-leaved 

 trees, but they seem to live only by sufferance in a forest 

 which everywhere presents an unbroken array of the 

 somber spires of the conifers. 



In preglacial times the coast region did possess elms 

 and beeches as well as gum trees, magnolias and chest- 

 nuts. Why these and others have disappeared never to 

 return is one of the great riddles of the plant world. 



In some regions of the earth, a rankly growing vege- 

 tation has almost suppressed human and animal life. 

 This is true of the great rain-soaked beech forests of 

 temperate South America, which Darwin describes so 



well in his journey on the Beagle, and of the tropical 

 forests of Africa. Another illustration of this dominance 

 of plant life is furnished by the great tropical forests of 

 the Amazon Valley of which the English naturalist and 

 collector, Bates, has furnished us a classic account in 

 "The Naturalist on the River Amazon." In tropical 

 Africa human dwarfs have found a refuge in the im- 

 penetrable forest, and the monkeys of the Amazon Val- 

 ley are compelled to live in the tree tops. 



The greatest development of higher animal life has 

 taken place in open and comparatively dry regions. Semi- 

 arid South Africa is the home of the greatest number of 

 species of big game, while the buffalo herds of the North 

 American prairies and the caribou herds of the Arctic 



tundras, are equalled no- 

 where else on earth. 



The length of life 

 among plants varies even 

 more than among animals. 

 The edible inky mush- 

 room produces its um- 

 brella-shaped column over 

 night. A few days later 

 the whole plant has de- 

 liquesced into a patch of 

 black ink, and within a 

 week not a trace is left of 

 its existence. 



The giant sequoia, on the 

 other hand, has outlived 

 the great empires of hu- 

 man history, enjoying a 

 vigorous growth for three 

 or even four thousand 

 years. No fungus or in- 

 sect pest is able to harm it. 

 Its top reaches three hun- 

 dred and fifty feet toward 

 the sky and if storms, 

 lightning and resulting fires 

 did not at last bring it 

 down, it seems that it 

 might live and grow for- 

 ever. And when, in the 

 end, the giant trunk has 

 crashed to earth amongst the smaller trees surrounding 

 it, a long depression in the soil tells of the big tree even 

 centuries after forest fires have consumed the enormous 

 mass of sound wood, to which fungus, insects and the 

 tooth of time could do no harm. Some of the giants 

 still growing in Mariposa Park were already big trees, 

 as New England and Minnesota measure trees, when 

 Abraham pastured his flocks in Palestine. 



Curious and innumerable are the methods of traveling 

 adopted by plants. Most plants can, of course, travel 

 only as seeds, although there are not a few exceptions 

 to this rule. 



The advantage of the first comer, the squatter, one 

 might say, plays an important part in the world of plant 



?! 



*; ffe 



WH& 



A RIVER BOTTOM FOREST OF YOUNG ELMS 



The seeds of the elm, birch, maple and ash are carried by both wind 

 and water. 



