Mount Rainier Part 24

The salal-berry is reported by Gorman to occur in coniferous woods between Longmire Springs and Paradise Park.

=Gaultheria ovatifolia= Gray.

This species resembles a diminutive plant of the preceding, but the berries are red and spicy, and borne singly in the axils of the leaves. Abundant in the coniferous woods at 3,000 to 3,500 feet elevation.

=Gaultheria humifusa= (Graham) Rydberg.

Much like a small plant of the preceding species, and only an inch or two high. Not rare on the slopes near Sluiskin Falls.

=Rhododendron albiflorum= Hooker.

(_Cladothamnus campanulatus_ Greene).

The white-flowered azalea so common in the shelter of trees at 5,000 to 5,500 feet elevation.

=Arctostaphylos uva-ursi= Linnaeus.

The kinnikinnik, essentially a lowland plant, covers the rocks at 8,000 feet alt.i.tude near Nisqually Glacier.

=Arctostaphylos nevadensis= Gray.

On the gravel bars of the Nisqually at Longmire Springs.

=Vaccinium macrophyllum= (Hooker) Piper.

The most valuable of all the native huckleberries. Easily recognized by the nearly black, not glaucous berries, and finely serrate leaves.

Plentiful at 3,000 to 4,000 feet alt.i.tude.

=Vaccinium ovalifolium= Smith.

Much like the preceding, but taller, the leaves entire, and the glaucous black berries not nearly so sweet.

=Vaccinium myrtillus microphyllum= Hooker.

(_V. scoparium_ Leiberg.)

A low, broom-like species, with small leaves and red or wine-colored berries. On dry ridges, 4,000 to 5,000 feet alt.i.tude.

=Vaccinium deliciosum= Piper.

This is the common bilberry of the alpine meadows of the Cascade and Olympic Mountains in Was.h.i.+ngton, where it is abundant at 4,500 to 5,500 feet alt.i.tude. In habit and fruit it resembles _V. caespitosum_, but in floral characters _V. ovalifolium_, to which Dr. Gray rather hesitatingly referred it. From this last it may readily be distinguished by its serrulate leaves and low habit, its relatively longer filaments, which in _V. ovalifolium_ are only one half as long as the anthers, and its small-seeded fruit of very different flavor.

Very young leaves have the serrulations tipped with small glandular appendages.

=UMBELLIFERAE.= (Parsley Family.)

=Ligustic.u.m purpureum= Coulter & Rose.

A tall "wild parsnip," with fern-like leaves and small whitish or purple-tinged flowers. Everywhere on the slopes, 4,000 to 6,000 feet elevation.

=Lomatium angustatum= Coulter & Rose.

In rock talus near Sluiskin Falls.

=Lomatium triternatum= Coulter & Rose.

A form of this variable species was found on the Goat Mountains by Allen, No. 257.

=Angelica lyallii= Watson.

Paradise Park, 5,000 feet elevation. Also common near the foot of Cowlitz Glacier.

=Sanicula septentrionalis= Greene.

Goat Mountains, Allen, No. 254.

=Osmorhiza ambigua= (Gray) Coulter & Rose.

Goat Mountains, Allen, No. 256.

=Heracleum lanatum= Michaux.

Common at 4,000 feet elevation.

=Hesperogenia stricklandi= Coulter & Rose.

An interesting plant, the type of a new genus, found in Paradise Park by Allen and by Strickland. Also collected on the mountain by Flett.

Occurs at 6,500 feet elevation.

=HALORAGIDACEAE.= (Water Milfoil Family.)

=Hippuris vulgaris= Linnaeus.

Found by Allen at Longmire Springs.

=Hippuris montana= Ledebour.

An interesting little species much resembling some mosses. It frequently mats the ground in wet places at 4,500 feet elevation.

=ONAGRACEAE.= (Evening Primrose Family.)

=Epilobium spicatum= Lamarck.

The common "fireweed," reported by Gorman on the "gra.s.sy slopes, 5,000 to 6,000 feet alt.i.tude."

=Epilobium latifolium= Linnaeus.

A species with flowers like the preceding, but only four to six inches tall. Found by Rev. E. C. Smith near the Cowlitz Glacier.