io6 Muhlenbergia, Volume 5 



every peak that rises to the region of perpetual snow in that 

 long range called the Cascade in Washington and Oregon, and 

 Sierra Nevada in California. 



"Its northern limit in British Columbia is at an elevation 

 of only eight thousand feet; on Mount Tacoma (Rainier), nine 

 thousand feet; and on the slopes of Mount Hood, nine thousand; 

 at Shasta, nine thousand two hundred; at Mount Lyall, nine 

 thousand five hundred; and ten thousand feet near Mount Whit- 

 ney, where it disappears. 



"In many of these regions the lower part of the belt mingles 

 with other trees, such as Red Silver Fir, Mountain Pine, or As- 

 pen Poplar, and here the trees often attain a large size, six to 

 twelve feet in. diameter at base, tapering to a slender shaft, 

 eighty to one hundred and fifty feet high; but in strictly alpine 

 situations the trees are reduced to low conical masses of foliage 

 or prostrate creeping shrubs. 



"In favorable situations the lower limbs are retained and be- 

 come long,, out-reaching, and spreading over the mountain slope 

 for many feet; the upper limbs are irregularly disposed, not 

 whorled; they strike downward from the start (so that it is al- 

 most impossible to climb one of the trees for the want of foot- 

 hold), then curving outward to the outline of the tree; they are 

 terminated by short, hairy branchlets thst decline gracefully, 

 and are decorated with pendent cones which are glaucous pur- 

 ple until maturity, then leather brown, with reflexed scales. 



"The main stem sends out strong ascending shoots, the 

 leading one terminating so slenderly as to bend from side to side 

 with its main purple pendants before the wind, and shimmering 

 in the sunlight with rare beauty. 



"This Alpine Spruce, not strictly a Hemlock, was first dis- 

 covered in 1H52, by that sharp-eyed Scotch gardner, John Jeff- 

 rey, who was sent to this country by Edinburgh florists to col- 

 lect seeds of forest trees in the wonderful region of the North- 

 west, but a few years before explored by David Douglas with 

 rich results. 



"Tliis tree, with three other new species, rewarded the 

 • li <>| this explorer, and was described by Professor Balfour 



