Mount Rainier Part 26

=Lathyrus pauciflorus= Fernald.

A wild pea with purple flowers collected by Allen in the Goat Mountains.

=Lathyrus nevadensis= Watson.

Very like the preceding but with white flowers. Collected by Allen, No. 297, on mountains near the upper valley of the Nisqually.

=Oxytropis cusickii= Greenman.

Goat Mountains, Allen, No. 245.

=ROSACEAE.= (Rose Family.)

=Spiraea densiflora= Nuttall.

A low shrub with dense corymbs of rose-colored flowers. Common in bogs at 4,500 feet, and on rock cliffs up to 6,000 feet elevation.

=Eriogynia pectinata= (Pursh) Hooker.

A little shrub only two or three inches tall, forming dense mats. The plant should easily be recognized by its sharply cleft leaves and dense erect racemes of white flowers. Abundant at 5,000 to 6,000 feet elevation. Gorman reports it from near the "Sphinx," 8,500 feet.

=Rubus nivalis= Douglas.

A trailing vine, with glossy, green, simple leaves. Common in the coniferous forests at 3,000 feet alt.i.tude, where it seldom blooms. On exposed rocks and banks one rarely finds its dull red flowers or bright red, raspberry-like, sour fruit.

=Rubus pedatus= Smith.

A trailing herbaceous plant, with palmately compound leaves and strawberry-like blossoms. The smooth red fruit is sour, and consists of only a few large drupelets. Common in the woods up to 4,000 feet alt.i.tude.

=Rubus lasiococcus= Gray.

Much like the preceding, but with simple leaves and p.u.b.escent fruit.

Grows with the preceding, and up to 5,000 feet or more.

=Potentilla flabellifolia= Hooker.

The common cinquefoil of the meadows, with bright yellow b.u.t.tercup-like flowers. Plentiful at 5,000 feet elevation.

=Potentilla dissecta= Pursh.

This has been collected by Allen on the Goat Mountains, No. 251.

=Potentilla glaucophylla= Lehmann.

Near the foot of Gibraltar, at 8,500 feet alt.i.tude.

=Potentilla villosa= Pallas.

A species with silvery strawberry-like leaves and bright yellow flowers. On the cliffs near the foot of Little Tahoma, at 7,500 feet elevation.

=Potentilla fruticosa tenuifolia= (Willdenow) Lehmann.

This shrubby cinquefoil occurs along White River Glacier.

=Sibbaldia proc.u.mbens= Linnaeus.

Abundant on the ridge near Sluiskin Falls.

=Dryas octopetala= Linnaeus.

Found in talus between Urania and White Glaciers by Professor Flett.

This is the southernmost known station in the Cascade Mountains.

=Pyrus occidentalis= Watson.

This mountain ash occurs at 4,500 to 5,000 feet alt.i.tude, usually forming dense clumps. It is seldom over four feet high. From related species its dull purple glaucous fruit and dull green leaves, serrate only near the apex, easily distinguish it.

=Pyrus sitchensis= (Roemer) Piper.

(_Sorbus sitchensis_ Roemer.)

This species grows from four to fifteen feet high, and is easily known by its intense scarlet fruit and s.h.i.+ning leaflets, which are sharply serrate to the base. The plant of the Cascade Mountains matches exactly with the type from Sitka, and we can detect no differences in the shrub common in the Blue Mountains and in Western Idaho. This shrub has heretofore been known as _Pyrus sambucifolia_ Chamisso & Schlechtendahl, but authentic Kamtschatka specimens of this last are clearly different from our plant.

=Rosa nutkana= Presl.

This common wild rose has been collected by Allen on the Goat Mountains, at 4,500 feet elevation.

=SAXIFRAGACEAE.= (Saxifrage Family.)

=Ribes howellii= Greene.

(_Ribes acerifolium_ Howell.)

A small currant, two to four feet high, with pendent racemes of flowers and glaucous black fruit. Common in the shelter of trees up to their limit.

=Ribes bracteosum= Douglas.

A currant with very large leaves and long, erect racemes of greenish flowers; fruit black. It is common along streams at low alt.i.tudes, and is locally known as "stink currant." Gorman reports it from Cowlitz Canyon, near the timber line.

=Ribes lacustre= (Persoon) Poiret.

This very p.r.i.c.kly gooseberry is reported by Gorman from the same locality as the preceding.

=Leptarrhena amplexifolia= (Sternberg) Seringe.

A handsome plant, with a radical tuft of oblong crenate evergreen leaves, and an erect scape of small greenish flowers in a corymb. The pods when mature are usually deeply tinged with purple. Common on the borders of rills at 5,000 feet, and on the wet cliffs near Sluiskin Falls. Also reported by Professor Greene from Spray Park.

=Tiarella unifoliata= Hooker.