The Deciduous Woods of British Columbia. 1 1 7 



quickly; it, however, even in its green state, makes excellent 

 firewood. Its habitat is usually on the margins of streams and 

 low-lying land, but it also occurs on the high lands, both of the 

 mainland and islands. It usually attains a size of six to tw-elve 

 inches, but is often larger, and from twenty to seventy-five or a 

 hundred feet high in this province. The sap, which is stripped 

 from the wood in the spring, by the natives for food, by means 

 of a bone implement made from the rib bone of a deer, is quite 

 sweet and of rather a pleasant flavour. The ribbon-hke strips 

 of sap are sometimes laid crosswise of each other, dried in the sun 

 and kept for future use. 



Willow, known botanically under the generic name of 

 Salix, is a genus which has not been well worked out, and I 

 therefore will not trouble you with details which probably are of 

 no practical interest. The largest of the willows in this country 

 is that known as Hooker's Willow {Salix Hookeriana). It occurs 

 commonly on Vancouver Island and the lower mainland, often 

 near water, but it is quite ubiquitous in its habits. It often 

 attains a size of 12 inches at the butt, but never any great height. 

 The wood resembles the variety used in England to make cricket 

 bats, and would probably answer the purpose well. The habitat 

 of the genus Salix is almost invariably near water or wet land ; it 

 comprises a large number of species, some of which are tiny 

 plants, barely an inch high. The latter occur only on high 

 mountains near the snow line 



Western White Oak — -Quercus Garrayana. — Sometimes 

 called Quercus Jacobi. The range of this tree is altogether con- 

 fined to Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands, not a single specimen 

 occurring on our mainland, but it appears in the adjacent States 

 of Washington and Oregon, extending to CaHfornia. Patches of 

 it occur on the southern end of Vancouver Island and for about 

 one hundred and fifty miles north. In some places it attains a 

 size of from three to four feet in diameter with good straight 

 trunks, from which logs can be obtained from ten to twenty feet 

 in length. It is hkewise a highly ornamental and shade tree. 

 The wood resembles English oak in appearance, having a beautiful 

 grain, but it has never been much used, principally I believe on 

 account of the difliculty of seasoning it properly, or rather the 

 necessary room and capital for storing it away for several years. 

 It is used to a limited degree by cabinet makers for ornarnental 

 furniture and other purposes of that kind. The bark is usually 

 whitish in appearance, deeply scored in the older trees, affording 

 excellent shelter for the eggs of the Oak Tree Looper, which, 

 during the last two years, devastated the oak forests in the 

 vicinity of Victoria. The leaf bears a considerable resemblance 

 to that of the English Oak. The acorn, prepared in a peculiar 



