BOTANY. 
21 
ticularly on the banks of streams, in ravines, and about rocky ledges. It generally forms a 
diffusely branching shrub, eight to ten feet high, often flowering and fruiting freely at the 
height of five or six feet. 
The largest individual which I saw was near Benicia; an upright tree some twenty feet in 
height, with an open spreading head ; trunk about a foot in diameter near the ground ; on it 
were growing several branches of mistletoe, ( Viscum flavescens.) 
The flowers are larger, and much more widely expanded than in Nuttall’s figure, (1. c.) In 
this respect it differs strikingly from the eastern species. Another peculiarity indicated in the 
figure given, (fig. 1,) is the successive appearance of the flowers during most of the spring and 
summer. As late as the last of duly, I found on each thyrsus a large number of unexpanded 
flower buds. From the beauty of the flowers, and the long time during which they continue 
to appear, it would be a highly valuable acquisition to the cultivators of ornamental shrubs in 
the eastern States. 
The wood is soft, white, and brittle, like that of the other species of the genus. 
Acer macropiiyllum. The Large-leaved Maple. 
A. macrophyllum. Pursli. Flov. 1, p. 267. 
A. macrophyllum. Hook. Flor. Bor. Amer. 1 , p. 102, t. 38. 
A. macrophyllum. Nutt. Sylva 2,p. 76, t. 67. 
The large leaved maple is commonly distributed throughout those portions of Oregon which 
we visited, the Cascade and Coast mountains, and the Willamette valley. It is usually found 
in the evergreen forests, always far outnumbered by the firs and spruces with which it is 
associated, but frequently forming a marked feature of the arborescent vegetation ; its immense 
leaves making it conspicuous wherever seen. 
Though much the largest of western maples, this species never attains the dimensions of the 
“hard” and “soft” maples of the east. 
I do not remember to have seen an individual more than eighteen inches in diameter three 
feet from the ground, though, from the circumstances in which it usually grows, it is taller 
than its diameter would indicate. 
The flowers, hanging in long racemes, are very ornamental, and, with the large pale green 
leaves, render it well worthy of cultivation for ornament. 
The leaves are frequently more than twelve inches in diameter, though usually from eight 
to ten. 
The wood of this maple is close-grained and hard, and furnishes almost the only hard wood 
timber attainable in the wooded portions of Oregon ; the oaks being, for the most part, confined 
to the open country, and having a low spreading form, so as to furnish little good timber. 
Acer circinatum. The Vine Maple. 
A. circinatum, Pursli ., Flor. l,p. 266. 
A. circinatum, Hook. Flor. Bor. Amer. 1 , p. 112, t. 3'J. 
It is perhaps doubtful whether this plant should be called a tree or shrub, as it has not the 
upright form of most trees, and rarely attains a greater diameter of trunk than five or six 
inches. It is exceedingly common throughout the coniferous forests of central and western 
Oregon, and is sure to bring itself to the notice of the traveller by the obstacles which it pre¬ 
sents to his passage through the forests where it grows. 
It has received its name from its peculiar habit, which is so far vine-like, that the slender 
