24 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of the two. It is strange that this plant, introduced by Douglas, is 

 much the rarer in our shrubberies ; in my country of Tweeddale it 

 grows just as readily. There are two Roses, Rosa nutkana and R. 

 gymnocarpa, both fairly well known in our gardens, and two creeping 

 brambles, Rubus ur sinus and one with glabrous leaves — R. nivalis — 

 also the charming little R. pedatus. There are two Aucuparias, Pyrus 

 sitchensis with glossy leaves and crimson fruit, and P. occidentalis 

 with dull leaves and coral-coloured fruit, quite unlike that of any 

 other Aucuparia ; neither, I believe, is in cultivation. 



The next region which I have chosen to speak about is that 

 surrounding Mount Rainier, the highest peak of the Cascade Range, 

 an extinct volcano of over 14,000 feet. Fifteen years ago I rode over 

 a woodland trail to the base of this splendid mountain ; now a light 

 railway through the forest takes you from Tacoma to within a few 

 miles of what has become a National Reserve or Park of over 200,000 

 acres surrounding the mountain. One passes through splendid timber 

 — Thuya gigantea, Picea sitchensis, Douglas firs, Cupressus noot- 

 katensis, Abies nobilis, A. amabilis, and Pinus monticola — in this 

 region; indeed, there is one point close to the foot of the Nisqually 

 Glacier, the principal glacier descending from the mountain, where 

 I counted twelve species of conifers in sight at once. 



Mount Rainier is the highest mountain in the U.S.A., and was 

 discovered in May 1792 by Vancouver and named in honour of his 

 friend, Admiral Peter Rainier. One of my slides shows the mountain 

 from Puget Sound, fifty miles away, and must have been taken from 

 very near the standpoint reached by Vancouver when the drawing 

 was made of the mountain by one of his crew, reproduced in 

 "Vancouver's Voyage." 



Our camp was in Paradise Valley, an open tract above timber- 

 line now reached by the Government Road. Professor Sargent 

 once spoke of it co me as the finest alpine garden in the world, and 

 my photograph (fig. 17) will show that it is not surpassed by even the 

 Tyrolese mountain meadows. On the sides of the glacier lower down 

 was growing Alnus sitchensis, with here and there a common juniper ; 

 higher up, Tsuga Hookeriana had taken the place of Tsuga Albertiana 

 and Abies subalpina, and A. amabilis that of A. nobilis and A. 

 grandis. There were dense shrubberies of the charming small- 

 flowered Rhododendron albiflorum mingling with the heaths Bryanthus 

 empetriformis and Cassiope Mertensiana ; higher still grew Vaccinium 

 deliciosum, remarkable for its sweet purple fruit, as large as a small 

 grape. I have succeeded in raising a good many plants in Surrey, 

 and I believe it to be a new introduction. Another interesting 

 Ericaceous plant with beautiful scarlet fruit gathered by me at the 

 same time is Gaultheria ovalifolia, of which the plants I sent succumbed 

 on the journey, but our Society has raised a quantity from my seed 

 at Wisley ; this, too, is new to cultivation.* 



* Since this was written I have seen Gaultheria ovalifolia in cultivation in the 

 Edinburgh Potanic Garden. 



