138 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED feTATES. 



29. NOTES ON THE PLANTS. 



The principal vegetation of the Peibylov group: Absence of trees. — That spnice trees can be made 

 to live transplanted from indigenous localities to the barren slopes of the Aleutian i-slauds has been demonstrated; 

 but in living, these trees scarcely grow to any appreciable degree. Evergreens were transferred to Oonalashka, 

 ■when Veuiaminov was at work there iu 18.'50-'3i). They are still standing and keep green,- yet the chauge 

 wliich such a long lapse of time should produce by growth has been as difficult to determine as it is to find 

 evidence of increased altitude to the mountains around them since these Sitkaii trees were planted, with pious 

 hope, at their feet fifty years ago. Though I can readily understand why the salmon berriesiof Oonalashka should 

 not do well on the .seal-islands (still I think they would at the tiarden cove of St. George), nevertheless I believe 

 that the whortleberries of that section would thrive at many places, if carefully transidanted to these localities, on 

 the southern sloi>es of Cemeteiy ridge at Zapaduie, the southern slopes of Telegraph hill, and eastern fall of Tolstoi 

 peninsula down to the shoi-e of the lagoon. They miglit also do well set out at picked places about the Big lake 

 and on Northeast jioint, around the little lake thereon. If these bushes really tlirov^ here, they would be the 

 means of adding greatly to the comfort of the inhabitants; for the Oonalashka whortlebexry is an exceeding jdeasant, 

 juicy friut, large and well adapted for canning and preserving. Having less sunshine here than at Illoolook, 

 it may not rii)en up as well flavored, but would, 1 think, succeed. The roots of the plants when brought up from 

 Oonalashka in April or early May, should be kept moist by wet moss wrappings, from the moment they are flret taken 

 up until they are reset, with the tops well pruned back, on the Pribylov islands. The experiment is surely worth 

 all the trouble of making, and I hope it will be undertaken. 



The characteristic "talneek": Salix. — The only suggestion of a tree found growing on the Pribylov 

 group is the hardy "talneek" or creeping willow; there are three species of the geuus Salix fouinl here, viz, 

 reticulata, polaris, and arctica ; the first named is the most common and of largest growth ; it progresses exactly as 

 a cucumber vine does in our gardens; as soon as it has made from the seed a sprout of six inches or a foot upright 

 from the soil, then it droops over and crawls along prostrate upon the earth, rocks, and sphagnum ; some of the 

 largest talneek trunks will measure eight or ten feet in decumbent length along the ground, and are as large 

 around the stump as an average wrist of man. The usual size, however, is very, verj' much less; while the stems 

 of polaris and arctica scarcely ever reach the diameter of a pencil ca.se, or the procumbent length of two feet. 



Although Rubus chanuvmorus is a tree shrub, and is found here very commonly distributed, yet it grows such a 

 slender, diminutive bush, that it gives no thought whatever of its being anything of the soi't. The herbs, grasses, 

 and ferns tower above it on all sides. 



Familiar and lovely flowering plants. — Perhaps no one plant that flowers on the seal-islands is more 

 conspicuous or abundant than is the Saxifraga oppositifolia ; it rises over all localities, rank and tall in rich 

 locations, to stems scarcely one inch high on the thin, jjoor soil of hill summits and sides; denselj' cespitose, with 

 leaves all imbricated in four rows; and flowers almost sessile. I think that at least ten well-defined species of this 

 order, iSaxifragacew, exist on the Pribylov group. The Ranunculacecv are not so numerous; but, still, a buttercup 

 growing in every low slope, where you may chance to wander, is always a plensant reminder of pastures at home; 

 and, also, a suggestion of the farm is constantly made by the luxuriant inflorescence of the wild mustard, Crueiferw. 

 The chickweed, Caryophyllaca', is well represented, and also the familiar dandelion. Taraxacum palustre. The 

 lichens, Thallophytes, and the mosses, Musci, are in their greatest exuberance, variety, and beauty here; and 

 myriads of yellow poppies, Papaveracw, are nodding their graceful heads in the sweeping of the wind — they are 

 the first flowers to bloom, and the last to fade. 



The chief economic value rendered by the botany of the Pribylov Islands to the natives, is the abundance of 

 the basket-making rushes, Juncacw, which the old "barbies" gather in the margins of many of the lakes and 

 pools. 



Mushrooms at St. Paul. — The fungoid growths on the Pribylov islands are abundant and varied, especially 

 in and around the vicinity of the rookeries and the killing-grounds. On the west slope of the Black Bluff's at St. 

 Paul, the mushroom, Agariciis campestris, was gathered in the season of 1872 by the natives, and eaten by one or 

 two families in the village, who had learned from the Eussians to cook them nicely. These seal-island mushrooms 

 have deeper tones of pink and purple red in their gills than do those of my gathering in the states. I kii-.ked over 

 many large s))hei'ical "puff-balls", Lycoperdons, in my tundra walks; myriads of smaller ones, Lycopenlon cincreum (.?), 

 cover patches near the spots where carcasses have long since rotted, together with a pale-gray fungus, Agaricus 

 Jimiputris, exceedingly delicate and frosted exquisitely. Some ligneous fungi, Clucariw, will be found attached to 

 the decaying stems of Salix reticulata (creeping willows). The irregularity of the annual growing of the agarics, 

 and their ra])id growth when they do appear, make their determination excessively difficult; they are as unstable 

 iu their visits as are several of the Lepidoptera. The cool humidity of climate during the summer season on the 

 Pribylov islands is especially adapted to the mysterious, but beautiful growth of these plants — the apotheosis of 

 decay. The coloring of several varieties is very bright and attractive, shading from a purplish scarlet to a pallid 

 whit*. 



