86 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Voi.. XXVII, 1920 
much more effective by the level character of the' surface, have, 
more than any other one factor, given the vegetation its peculiar 
aspect. 
As we approach the cape from the eastward, a little over a mile 
from its outermost extremity we find the forest beginning to leave 
off rather gradually. For some distance there is a scattered 
growth of Spruce {Picea sitchensis) and Pine (Pinus contorta) 
which are more and more dwarfed as we advance, and finally 
disappear altogether. 
Near where the forest ends there is a large swamp tract covered 
with a remarkably dense growth of a strongly marked variety of 
Juncus effusus (y a,r. exigus Fern. & Wieg*. ?) with very slender, 
drooping, wiry stems. Bordering the Juncus area is a large field 
of Lupines {Lupinus columbianus) making a brilliant display of 
intensely blue color. 
On leaving the forest we come out into a section more fully 
exposed to the force of the wind, and the effect of this exposure 
is very striking. Tall vegetation of every kind wholly disappears. 
The all-dominating species is the Coast or Shot Huckleberry 
(Vaccinium ovatum). The rounded clumps, very uniform in size 
and shape, sloping gently to the northward, more abruptly to the 
south, remind us strongly, as we look across the wide, level 
stretches, of low, even swells on a large body of water. Every 
bush is a densely matted mound of vegetation, the rigid, inter- 
lacing twigs scarcely covered by the small leaves. Not a twig 
stands out beyond the general surface; all are as closely cropped 
by the wind as the most carefully trimmed hedge. Here and there 
in a slight depression there is a dwarfed growth of sphagnum 
moss, and accompanying it are several sphagnum bog plants, 
the most noticeable being a handsome Lily (Lilium kelleyanum) . 
Elsewhere a slender and stately species, here it is not permitted 
to grow an inch taller than the mounded Huckleberry bushes that 
shelter it. 
As we advance the dwarfed bushes are yet more dwarfed, 
dwindling down until they are only a few inches in height, and 
finally thinning out and disappearing altogether. The area now 
before us looks at a distance like a close-cropped pasture, save 
that in a pasture there are usually some plants that grazing ani- 
mals find unfit for food and permit to grow more or less undis- 
turbed. Here all are treated alike by the wind. Everything 
hugs the earth with a desperate tenacity. A fine large Iris (Iris 
douglasiana) has stems but four or five inches long growing in 
