398 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST.  [VoL. XXXIII. 
town were a number of aquatics, the most conspicuous of 
which was Nuphar polysepalum, with enormous yellow flowers 
and big leaves. In the Sphagnum grew Linnza, cranberries, 
Vaccinium vitis-idea, crowberry, Drosera rotundifolia, Men- 
yanthes, and the closely related NMephrophyllidium crista-galli, 
cotton grass, Kalmia glauca, and other characteristic bog 
plants. 
On the higher portions of the bie were small groves of 
Pinus contorta, the only pine seen in Alaska, and some small 
cedars (probably Chamzecyparis), which, not eee in fruit, could 
not be positively identified. 
The most conspicuous bog plant of this region is the west- 
ern skunk-cabbage (Lysichiton kamtschatcense), which abounds 
everywhere along the Northern Pacific Coast, and is the only 
Aroid of this region. The enormous leaves, sometimes three 
feet in length and a foot wide, resemble some tropical plant, 
and recalled to me some of the great West Indian species of 
Anthurium. Indeed, both the leaves and the inflorescence, 
with its large, lemon-yellow spathe, recall Anthurium rather 
than Symplocarpus, with which it is ordinarily associated. The 
popular name is rather a libel on this very handsome Aroid, 
as the odor is not at all noticeable. 
There are certain drawbacks in exploring the forest, which 
is so dense that it is not safe to leave the trails. A few feet 
away from the trail there is an almost impenetrable jungle, the 
ground covered with fallen logs and a tangle of dense under- 
growth which makes one’s progress toilsome in the extreme, and 
once out of sight of the trail the danger of losing one’s self 
completely is very great. The appropriately named “devil's 
club” (Echinopanax horridus), a comely enough plant to look 
at, with its big, bright green maple-shaped leaves, but whose 
stem is covered with bunches of needle-like spines, abounds 
everywhere, and is the veritable terror of these northern 
woods. 
In the more open ground, grasses of various kinds flourish, 
among them timothy, orchard grass, blue-grass, as well as red 
and white clover, which are completely naturalized, and would 
doubtless furnish good feed for horses and cattle, although the 
