No. 389.] VACATION NOTES. 393 
The most attractive place in the neighborhood is Point 
Defiance Park, a government reservation which is open as a 
public park. It is a magnificent tract of forest, on the shore 
of the Sound, which has been preserved, and is of course espe- 
cially interesting to the botanist, as it gives an excellent idea 
of the character of the forest which formerly covered the whole 
of the surrounding country. The trees are for the most part 
the prevailing Douglas fir, and while these do not grow so 
thickly as in the best lumber regions, still the individual trees 
are magnificent specimens. Some of them must be 250 feet 
high, with immensely tall trunks eight feet or more in diameter 
near the ground. These straight columns run up to a prodi- 
gious height without branches, and one only realized the great 
size of the trunks on coming close to them, as their enor- 
mous height gives them a deceptively slender appearance. I 
was told that these trees were not to be compared to some of 
those further inland, but they were the finest specimens of the 
species that I have ever seen. 
A few cedars and hemlocks were mixed with the firs, but 
neither were of remarkable size, although at Vancouver I 
remember seeing cedars of gigantic size. The undergrowth of 
the forest was much like that in northern California. The 
commonest of the deciduous trees noted were Acer macrophyl- 
lum, Cornus nuttallii, and Alnus oregana. The excessive 
moisture causes an extraordinarily rank growth of ferns and 
undershrubs, almost tropical in its luxuriance. Pteris aguilina 
grew everywhere, some of the fronds being ten feet or more in 
height, and Rubus nutkanus, growing with them, was almost as 
high. In the low grounds Lgwisetum maximum, five or six 
feet high, was conspicuous. A few specimens of Linnza were 
seen, and another characteristic plant was Gaultheria shallon, 
in full flower. It forms a prostrate bush a foot or two in 
height, a veritable giant compared to the eastern wintergreen. 
At Tacoma I had the good fortune to meet Mr. Walter 
Evans, of the Department of Agriculture, who was also bound 
for Alaska. I am much indebted to him for information con- 
cerning the flora of the Northern Pacific Coast, with which his 
former trips had made him familiar, 
