BOTANY OF THE ROUTE. 
27 
high and a foot in diameter, though commonly smaller, the largest being about Puget Sound. 
Its wood has all the toughness and elasticity of the European yew, and, like it, was formerly 
used for bows by the natives. Its larger and brighter leaves, smooth red bark, and coral-red 
sweet berries, easily distinguish it from the hemlock, which it much resembles in growth and 
foliage. I have seen it at a height of about a thousand feet on the Cascade mountains. 
But one other coniferous tree is common in the western region—a pine (P. contorta) so much 
resembling the “Jersey scrub pine” (P. inops) as to be commonly considered identical. It 
grows in dry, sandy prairies, forming groves along the sea beach and also high up the 
mountains. It grows forty feet high and two in diameter, but is of little value as timber. 
The range of the Jersey pine is widely separated from it, and none occur in the interval from 
Kentucky to the Rocky mountains. 
Besides these seven species, which compose the bulk of the forests, there are a few other 
coniferous trees which I shall briefly mention, as they occur only in scattered localities, and 
are therefore of little value. 
A tree called “white spruce,” but very distinct from that so named in Canada, found in 
small numbers about the sound, becoming scarcer towards the Columbia river. It has smooth, 
white bark, when old becoming dark; very long, shining, dark green leaves, arranged mostly 
in a single series; and as it branches at regular intervals and in symmetrical whorls, forms one 
of the most beautiful trees of this family. I never could obtain cones, as they fall to pieces 
after ripening, but from the characters of its leaves have little doubt of its being Abies 
taxifolia, Lambert. It is certainly entirely distinct from the Douglass or red fir. 
A few stunted trees of the yellow or heavy pine, (P. ponderosa,) already described, are 
found on the dry, gravelly plain near Steilacoom, but are so stunted as to be scarcely 
recognizable as the same tree so majestic on the eastern slope of the Cascade range. 
A “white pine” is said to grow abundantly on the Olympia range and along the west side 
of Hood’s Canal, where, I believe, it is sawed into lumber. I could never ascertain whether 
it was the species found on the Cascade mountains (P* Monticola) or some other. 
The Nootka cypress (Cupressus Nutkatensis) is doubtless found in the Territory, as it grows 
both northward and far south on the Cascade mountains of southern Oregon, where it was 
found by my friend Dr. Newberry. From the general similarity of its foliage to that of a 
juniper, it seems probable that the tree seen by Mr. Gibbs, “in swamps at the mouth of the 
Snohomish river,” was the former, which is much more likely to grow in such a situation than 
a true juniper. 
A second species of arbor-vitee (Thuya plicata) is said by Nuttall to be found on the islands 
north of the Straits of Fuca, and probably extends within the Territory. “Cedars” on 
Whidby’s and other islands resemble it in their smaller size and denser branching, but I 
attributed the variety to soil and did not preserve specimens. 
BROAD-LEAVED TREES. 
Forests almost exclusively composed of the evergreen conifer® produce, of course, but few 
trees of other classes; but those found in the Territory are well worthy of special notice, on 
account of their valuable properties. 
The ‘foliaceous” trees there grow almost exclusively on the borders of prairies, river banks, 
and such open situations; never in the thick forests of evergreens, though sometimes in scattered 
