International Excursion in America. 89 
and are often subsequently burned over more than once, effectually 
preventing the return of the forest trees. The land is then aban¬ 
doned till it can be sold for farming, at a very low price, e.g., $15 
an acre, but the very heavy cost—at least $100 an acre—of clearing 
the ground of tree-stumps imposes a charge so heavy that farming 
is often unremunerative. 
The night of August 27th was spent at the large city of Tacoma 
on the southern extremity of Puget Sound, and on the following 
day the party travelled in the morning to Kapowsin where they 
spent part of the day at a lumber camp as the guests of the Tacoma 
and Saint Paul Lumber Company. The land belonging to this 
company is situated on the foothills of the Cascades and once bore 
splendid Douglas forest, most of which has now been removed. 
Portions of as yet untouched forest were visited by the party, and 
presented a magnificent specimen of virgin mesophytic forest. 
The forest was dominated by Psendotsuga mucronata, in close 
stand, often making up 90% of the forest, the average height of the 
trees being 200 feet. Mature trees are 300 to 400 years old, and 6 
or 8 feet in diameter at the base. Some giants measure as much as 
14 feet across and these may approach an age of 1,000 years, though 
in general trees of over 500 years are rare. Associated with 
Psendotsuga are Tsuga heterophylla and Thuja gig an tea, and also 
Abies grandis and A. nobilis. The coastal species Picea sitchensis 
is rare. Of small trees or shrubs, Acer macrophyllum is common ; 
A. circinatum and A. glabrum also occur; also Rhamnus Purshiana. 
The red-berried huckleberry, Vaccinium parvifolium, four or five 
feet high, occurs,and the Devil’s Club, Echinopanax (Fatsia) horrida 
with its tall stout prickly stems and large palmately lobed leaves is 
a great feature under the forest shade. Of ferns, Polystichum 
munitum, the “Christmas fern,” Adiantum pedatum, var. alenticum 
and Blechnum boreale are common, and the conspicuous lichen often 
covers the dead branches of the trees Equisetuin sylvaticum, Oxalis 
sp. (close to Q. Acetosella) Tiarella, and various other shade-forms 
are found on the ground. 
After lumbering various quickly spreading plants at first colonise 
the soil—conspicuous among which are Epilobium angustifolium and 
Anaphalis margaritacea. A species of Senecio is also in evidence. 
Ptevidium aquilinum, which is absent from the heaviest forest, comes 
slowly in, and shrub-genera such as Alnus, Salix, Corylus, Satnbucus, 
also increase. The conifers come back pretty quickly in normal 
regeneration, but, as has been said, these areas are so often repeatedly 
burned over that the young trees are destroyed and all chance of 
