Sitkan Region. 589 
the one at Puget Sound, resembling that of Puget Sound and western British 
Columbia, although Fseudotsuga Douglasii, does not reach Alaska, while Adies 
grandis, Acer grandidentatum are absent from the Alaska forest and 7Auja 
gigantea (= T. plicata) common on Prince of Wales Island is rare, if it exists 
at all north of latitude 56° N. It lacks the pines, with the exception of the 
inferior Pinus contorta which here and there occupies swampy and dry gra- 
velly situations. Ckamaecyparis nootkatensis is limited in a westward direction 
by Yakutat Bay with evidence of its existence in a few spots on Prince William 
Sound. The Oregon alder, Alnus oregona, is found abundantly, as far, as 
the foot of La Perouse Glacier, a little south of Mt. Fairweather, but is 
entirely absent at Yakutat Bay and farther west. Excepting, then, the more 
or less sporadic occurrence of the species mentioned the coast forest is com- 
posed of two trees: Picea sitchensis and coast hemlock Tsuga Merten- 
siana (= T. heterophylla) '). 
From the edge of tidewater (see plate XIV) these two trees grow up to 
the timber line, which varies in elevation from 2,500 to 4,000 feet, everywhere 
in dense serried masses, covering all the islands and the seaward slopes of 
the mountains of the mainland, which shut off the moisture from the interior. 
Abies subalpina (= A. lasiocarpa) in dwarfed specimens from the interior 
remains the only timber-line tree at the White Pass. Other woody plants at 
timber line, dwarfed in size (Krummholz), are Funzperus communis var. nana, 
Salix fulcrata, Ribes bracteosum, Spiraea betulifolia, Potentilla frutwosa, Ame- 
lanchier canadensis var. oblongifolia and Cladothamnus pirolacflorus. The 
following ericaceous plants also occur here: Vaccinium caespitosum var. arbus- 
cula, V. uliginosum, Bryanthus glanduliflorus, B. empetriformis, Cassiope Merten- 
Siana, C. Stelleriana, Ledum palustre and the ecologically related Empetrum 
Numerically in this forest the coast hemlock, 7suga Mertensiana is the 
most common species, forming usually 70 to 80 per cent of the Brgere 
(Tsuga Mertensiana Facies). The spruce Picea sitchensis occasionally pre- 
Ponderates, especially along the water courses (Picea sitchensis Facies) and 
on newly formed moraines until the western limit of the coast hemlock Tsuga 
Mertensiana is reached at Prince William Sound. Farther west, however, the 
Spruce, Picea sitchensis, alone forms forest, or open groveS, 5 on the shores 
of Cook Inlet and Kadiak Island where it meets the vanguard of the interior 
forest of Alaska derived from the Atlantic coniferous forest stretching across 
the Continent. This is indicated by the presence of Picea nigra ee pP. ae 
ana) in small peat bogs associated with Empetrum, Ledum Zatifoltum , Betu 
$landulosa. On the northwest side of Cook Inlet are found Picea alba (= P. 
Canadensis). Betula papyrifera (the most abundant tree), Populus balsamifera 
ee 
. . s ri The 
f 1) MeeHan, Tromas: Alaska Forests. Gardener’s Chroniele third ae ei; Alaska ; 
„'ests of Alaska (Editorial. Garden and Forest X: 379, Fernow, B. E.: Fo 
arriman Alaska Expedition II. 1904: 135—256. 
