Page:Atlantis Arisen.djvu/241

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one, an evergreen, having fruit and flowers at the same time. This is the Vaccinium Ovatum , with leaves like a myrtle, and a black, rather sweet berry. The second has a very slender stalk, small, deciduous leaves, and small acid berries of a bright scarlet color. This is V. Ovalifolium. The third— V. Parvifolium — resembles more the huckleberry of the Eastern States, and bears a rather acid blueberry. In favored localities these are as fine as those varieties which grow in Massachusetts or Michigan. In addition to these is a kind of false huckleberry, bearing no fruit; and a species of barberry, resembling that found in New England.

Of gooseberries there are also three varieties, none of them producing very good fruit. They are Ribes Jjaxiflorum, Bracte- oseum , and Lacustre.

The salmon-berry ( Rubus Spectabilis ) is abundant on high banks and in openings in the forest. It resembles the yellow raspberry

Of plants that creep on'the ground there are several varieties, some of them remarkably pretty. Of wild roses, spircea, woodbine, mock-orange, thorn-bushes, and other familiar shrubs, there are plenty.

The devil’s walking-stick ( Echinophanax horridum ) is a shrub deserving of mention. It grows to the height of six feet, in a single, thorny, green stem, and bears at the top a bunch of broad leaves, resembling those of the white maple. When encountered in dark thickets it is sure to make itself felt, if not seen. Add to all that has gone before, great ferns,—from two to fourteen feet in height, with tough stems, and roots far in the ground,—and we have the earth pretty much covered from sun and light.

These are the productions, in general, of the most western forests of Oregon. When we try to penetrate such tropical jungles, we wonder that any animals of much size—like the elk, deer, bear, panther, and cougar—get through them. Nor do all these inhabit the thickest portions of the forest, but the elk, deer, and bear keep near the occasional small prairies which occur in the mountains, and about the edges of clearings among the foot-hills, except when driven by fear to hide in the dark recesses of the woods. In the fall of the year, whe