THE FLORA OF MOUNT RAINIER 



the larger-coned Black hemlock ; the Douglas spruce 

 and Lovely fir are replaced by the Noble fir; and 

 the ragged-barked Alaska cedar greets the eye. An- 

 other thousand feet and the Subalpine fir replaces its 

 two near relatives. From this point upward, the 

 forest, now composed only of Black hemlock, Alaska 

 cedar and Subalpine fir, to which in some places the 

 White-bark pine must be added, is confined largely to 

 the crests of ridges and straggles up the mountain in 

 irregular broken lines. Between these timbered ridges 

 extensive grassy slopes appear, veritable flower gardens 

 when in their glory. 



At 6,500 feet elevation the timber ceases to be. 

 Scraggly prostrate firs and hemlocks, sprawling as it 

 were on the earth for shelter, mark sharply the limit 

 of their endurance. Here, too, the continuous carpet 

 of grass and flowers ceases and a soil of volcanic 

 sand or powdered pumice supports a very different 

 vegetation. At 10,000 feet the toughest mountaineer 

 of all the flowering plants, Smelowskia ovalis, still 

 appears. Far above this, however, even to the crater's 

 rim, lichens trace their hieroglyphics on the rocks ; 

 and on the steam-warmed rocks of the crater two 

 mosses find lodgment, Hypnum elegans Hooker ?, and 

 Philonotis fontana Bridel, the latter even in fruit. 



Few plants grow in the dense shades of the lower 

 forests, and these are mainly ericaceous. Most plen- 

 tiful are Vaccinium ovalifolium, F. macrophyllum, 

 Gaultheria ovatifolia, Menziesia ferruginea, Pachystima 

 myrsinites, Cornus canadensis and Clintonia uniflora. 

 Here, too, occur several weird-looking whitish or reddish 

 saprophytes, Monotropa hypopitys, Pterospora androme- 

 dea, and Corallorhiza mertensiana. 



On the drier portions of the grassy slopes Lupinus 

 subalpinus, Castilleja oreopola, Potentilla flabellifolia, 

 Pulsatilla occidentalis, Erigeron salsuginosus, Polygo- 

 num bistortoides, Phyllodoce empetriformis, Cassiope 

 mertensiana and Vaccinium deliciosum are the most 



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