92 
International Excursion in America. 
contains many of the same species as in the lower forest, with such 
forms as Linncea borealis , Clintonia, Pterospora androniedea, etc. 
Mount Rainier. 
On the morning of August 29th, after a night spent at Longmire’s 
Springs, the party made their way up the upper Nisqually valley 
through the coniferous woods just mentioned, past the snout of the 
Nisqually Glacier, and spent two nights at the “ Camp of the Clouds ” 
situated in the sub-alpine parkland at 5,500 feet, above the limit of 
continuous forest. August 30th was spent on the slopes of Mount 
Rainier, and on August 31st the party returned to Tacoma. The 
sub-alpine meadowland round the “Camp of the Clouds” contains 
a great wealth of beautiful herbaceous forms, including Valeriana 
sitchensis, Castilleia oreophila, Pulsatilla occidentalis, Gnaphalium 
lanceolatum , Eriogynia pectinata, Hieracium gracile, Polygonum 
bistortoides, Lupin us Lyellii. The trees, which are scattered in 
clumps and lines, are mainly Abies lasiocarpa, a tall narrow pyra¬ 
midal tree, which, as “ Kriippelholz,” forms the actual tree-limit at 
6,800 feet. Mount Rainier, a great rounded volcanic cone 14,530 
feet high and with the upper 5,000 feet or so covered with snow, 
towers magnificently above these slopes, which are composed of talus 
and rock and possess many beautiful alpines, such as Lupinus Lyellii, 
Saxifraga Tohneana, Antennaria, Phlox Douglasii, etc. 
“ Oak Openings.” 
On September 1st the “oak-openings” at Spanaway Lake in the 
neighbourhood of Tacoma were visited. These are patches of 
prairie in the middle of rather open woodland of Douglas fir with 
Fraxinus oregana (shore of the lake), Alnus oregana, Acer circinatum, 
Corylus californica, Salix sp. and Pteridiuin abundant on the ground. 
Quercus Garryana was scattered along the edge of the prairie, and 
the grassland itself was largely composed of a species of Festuca, 
with Leontodon sp. abundant, and locally Pteridiuin. Pseudotsuga 
was clearly slowly invading the prairie, many seedlings in all stages 
of growth occurring on the edge of the grassland. Whether the 
latter was primitive and the observed invasion part of a secular 
process not yet complete, or whether these local prairies owe their 
origin to fires occurring in the thin woodland developed on the 
rather poor gravel and humus soil, as is perhaps more likely, 
is a question which remains obscure. 
Some members of the party visited the Nereocystis beds in 
Puget Sound. 
(to be continued). 
