1 



February io, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



53 



I did not find time to measure any trees accurately in the 

 Mooney Grove, but there is a small grove of about forty 

 acres a mile from Visalia, which ought to be owned by the 

 town, and here, within a radius of less than two hundred 

 feet, I took the girths of five trees at six feet from the 

 ground, and they ranged from eleven to fifteen feet, and 

 the heights ranged from fifty-five to ninety-four feet. One 

 of the trees, an old one, with considerable branch-room, 

 had a broad spreading top (the top broken off). Another 

 was tall and straight, with a trunk without a branch for 

 twenty-five feet. The height of some of these Oaks is sur- 

 prising. They seem to have grown in great thickets, in 

 windless places, and the need of light and air forced them 

 straight upward. 



The Oaks in this little grove grow on a very heavy 

 alluvial soil, so rich in alkaline salts that the common 

 Alkali Grass of the plains, Distichlis maritima, is all that 

 covers the surface. The soil, unlike that in the Mooney 

 Grove, is unfit for farming, but the place is very attractive, 

 covered as the surface is with this coarse Bermuda-like 

 Grass, and so green and golden in this November season. 

 The Oaks themselves are of many colors, though every 

 tree on the forty acres is a Quercus lobata, for some are 

 nearly leafless, others show yellow foliage, and still others 

 are various shades of green. The bark also varies from 

 smooth to very rough, and from dark brown to ashen gray. 

 The lower branches are sometimes drooping, like those of 

 so-called weeping-trees, but they sometimes extend nearly 

 horizontally, though the normal type of the older trees is 

 especially upright, as shown in the photograph of the 

 Mooney Grove. 



Niles. Calif. 



Charles H. Shimi. 



Paradise Valley. 



THERE have recently appeared in Garden and Forest 

 two or three articles upon the flora of Mount Ranier, 

 especially that part of the mountain known as Paradise 

 Valley. It occurs to me that an enumeration of the flowers 

 found in this wonderful little valley would be of interest, 

 and since I spent some time in studying the botany 

 of Ranier last summer I am pleased to undertake such an 

 enumeration. 



Paradise Valley is situated on the south flank of Ranier, at 

 an altitude of from 5,000 to 6,000 feet ; it is in a Government 

 reservation, the Pacific Forest Reserve. The Reserve, the 

 crowning feature of which is the great mountain, is in the 

 Cascades of western Washington, and covers an area of 

 thirty-six by forty-two miles. In it is, perhaps, the greatest 

 glacier system on the continent south of Alaska. Several 

 large rivers head in the glaciers, and between two of these, 

 the Nisqually and Cowlitz, up among perpetual icebergs, 

 Paradise Valley is situated. 



I judge that the valley is from four to six. miles long and 

 from a half mile to two miles wide. Its outline is very 

 irregular and its surface rough and rugged. But the interest 

 and attractiveness of the valley lie not so much in its forma- 

 tion as in its covering. An alpine meadow could hardly 

 be more beautiful. The valley is covered with a perfect 

 carpet of flowers, excepting here and there a dash of snow, 

 a rocky crest, or a grove of Alpine Firs and Mountain 

 Hemlocks. 



The background for the floral display is composed of 

 two Dog-tooth Violets, Erythronium montanum and E. 

 grandiflorum ; the former is pure white, the latter with a 

 tinge of yellow and rose. Along streams and bordering 

 snowbanks acres of ground are literally covered with these 

 flowers. The two species alternate in the floral design, 

 seemingly without reason, so that we have now a spread 

 of white, and next a cloth of gold. 



In the drier parts of the valley, two Heaths, Brianthus 

 empetriformis and Cassiope Mertensiana, form the greater 

 part of the display. The first is a span, or a little more, in 

 height, much branched, and has its foliage almost hidden 

 with umbels of rose-colored campanulate flowers. The 



second is taller and has pure white campanulate flowers, 

 borne singly, and nearly hidden by the leaves. 



A pretty pale blue Aster, Erigeron salsuginosus, grows near- 

 ly everywhere. Potentilla gelida, a Buttercup-like flower, and 

 fine Arnicas furnish an abundance of yellow. In the groves 

 there are many mountain Rhododendrons, handsome shrubs, 

 several feet high, with pure white funnel-shaped flowers. 

 Spiraea rosea is a common shrub on the cliffs. There are 

 several Saxifrages, three or four species of Mimulus, a 

 common and pretty one being the little yellow Monkey- 

 flower, M. alpinus. Orthocarpus pilosus, the flowered 

 Painted Cup, is plentiful. A handsome Knot-weed, Poly- 

 gonum bistorta, bearing a spike of pure white flowers, 

 grows almost everywhere in the valley. Wild Heliotrope, 

 Valeriana Sitchensis, with corymbs of fragrant pinkish 

 flowers, is common. There is a profusion of Anemone 

 occidentalis, the mountain Anemone, its curious feathery 

 seed-tops reminding one of the beard of a mountain goat. 

 Several Lilies are found. Green Hellebore, Veratrum 

 viride, Dodecatheon crenatum, Gentiana calycosa.Pentste- 

 mon Menziesii, are all plentiful. A bright yellow Aster, 

 Erigeron aureus, is found in the higher parts of the valley. 

 Accompanying it are generally a lovely blue Lupine, 

 Lupinus Lyalli, and Polemonium humile, a light blue 

 flower with a yellow eye. On the rocks, in this almost the 

 highest part of the valley, Spiraea ca?spitosa, a silky 

 tufted plant with an abundance of small flowers, forms 

 a thick velvety mass that excludes all other plants. 

 Tolmie's Saxifrage, Saxifraga Tolmiei, found a little higher 

 up, forms similar mats. In the volcanic debris a Daisy- 

 like purple Aster, A. pulchellus, is common. At this alti- 

 tude the elements have dwarfed the Firs and Hemlocks 

 into prostrate shrubs, with trunks greater in diameter than 

 in height, their long, gnarled branches sprawling on the 

 rocks. The alpine Juniper, Juniperus communis, var. 

 Sibirica, is common here. Spraguea umbellata is one of 

 the odd plants to be found here; its radical, fleshy, 

 spatulate leaves rise from a thickened root, and its rose- 

 colored flowers are borne in a dense capitate umbel of 

 nearly sessile spikes. 



Grasses and Sedges are common wherever plants can 

 grow in the valley. There are several Ferns, an abundant 

 pretty one being Phegopteris alpestris. Protoccecus nivalis, 

 the Red Snow-plant, forms blotches of a gory hue here and 

 there on the snow-fields. Wood and rock are covered 

 always with Mosses and Lichens. 



Now and then there is an alpine grove of Tsuga Pattoni- 

 ana, one of the handsomest of all Hemlocks, and Abies 

 lasiocarpa, the alpine Fir. These groves are very pictur- 

 esque ; the drooping, dark green branches of the Hemlock 

 bending with festoons of Lichens intermingled with the 

 pale green foliage of the stately Firs, with now and then an 

 Alaska Cedar, Chamaecyparis Nootkatensis, make a beautiful 

 picture for a lover of trees. JT „ u 1 ■ 1 



Oregon Agricultural College, Corvallis, Or. U, i . Jrledrick. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Dendrobium Bancroftianum. — This is a variety of the 

 Australian Dendrobium speciosum, from which it differs in 

 having thinner, shorter pseudo-bulbs, smaller leaves and 

 shorter, looser racemes of white flowers, with a few spots 

 of purple on the labellum. Messrs. Sander & Co., who 

 have lately introduced it, and with whom it tlowered a few 

 weeks ago, say that it grows and flowers with much 

 greater freedom than the type. They exhibited a plant of 

 it last week bearing six flower-spikes, and it was awarded 

 a botanical certificate. The type is a very old garden 

 Orchid which grows well from year to year under ordinary 

 treatment, but only rarely flowers. I lately saw some fine 

 specimens of it which had been hung under a tree in the 

 open air in July and August, and they had made excep- 

 tionally large pseudo-bulbs. When bearing its long fox- 



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