280 ESS A YS. 



gigantic trees which have made it famous, and its Pines and 

 Firs which are hardly less wonderful, and which in Oregon 

 and British Columbia, descending into the plains, yield far 

 more timber to the acre than can be found anywhere else, — I 

 have myself discoursed upon the subject so largely on former 

 occasions, that I may cut short all discourse upon the Pacific- 

 coast flora and the questions it brings up. 



I note only these points. Although this flora is richer than 

 that of the Atlantic in Coniferce (having almost twice as many 

 species), richer indeed than any other except that of eastern 

 Asia, it is very meagre in deciduous trees. It has a fair num- 

 ber of Oaks, indeed, and it has a Flowering Dogwood, even 

 more showy than that which brightens our eastern woodlands 

 in spring. But, altogether it possesses only one-quarter of the 

 number of species of deciduous trees that the Atlantic forest 

 has ; it is even much poorer than Europe in this respect. It 

 is destitute not only of the characteristic trees of the Atlantic 

 side, such as Liriodendron, Magnolia, Asimina, Nyssa, Catalpa, 

 Sassafras, Carya, and the arboreous Leguminosce (Cercis ex- 

 cepted), but it also wants most of the genera which are com- 

 mon throughout all the other northern-temperate floras, having 

 no Lindens, Elms, Mulberries, Celtis, Beech, Chestnut, Horn- 

 beam, and few and small Ashes and Maples. The shrubbery 

 and herbaceous vegetation, although rich and varied, is largely 

 peculiar, especially at the south. At the north we find a fair 

 number of species identical with the eastern ; but it is interest- 

 ing to remark that this region, interposed between the north- 

 east Asiatic and the north-east American and with coast ap- 

 proximate to the former, has few of those peculiar genera 

 which, as I have insisted, witness to a most remarkable con- 

 nection between two floras so widely sundered geographically. 

 Some of these types, indeed, occur in the intermediate region, 

 rendering the general absence the more noteworthy. And 

 certain peculiar types are represented in single identical 

 species on the coasts of Oregon and Japan, etc., (such as 

 Lysichiton, Fatsia, Glehnia) ; yet there is less community 

 between these floras than might be expected from their 

 geographical proximity at the north. Of course the high- 

 northern flora is not here in view. • 



