An Island of Color in the Forest. Rhododendrons and Squaw Grass on the west slope of Mount Hood.
"The common growth of mother-earth
Suffices me,—her tears, her mirth,
Her humblest mirth and tears."—Wordsworth.
COPYRIGHT, ASAHEL CURTIS
On the road to Government Camp, west of Mount Hood. Broadleaf Maple on extreme right; Douglas Firs arching the roadway, and White Fir on left.
A little lower, the transition zone offers a noteworthy intermingling of species. Down from the stormy heights come alpine trees to lock branches with types from warmer levels. Here you see lodgepole pine (Pinus murrayana), that wonderful restorer of waste places which sends forth countless tiny seedlings to cover fire-swept areas and lava fields with forerunners of a forest. Here, too, you will find western white pine (Pinus monticola), the fair lady of the genus, whose soft, delicate foliage, finely chiseled trunk, and golden brown cones denote its gentleness; and Engelmann spruce (Picea Engelmannii) of greener blue than any other, and hung with pendants of soft seed cones, saved from pilfering rodents by pungent, bristling needles.
Here also are western larch or tamarack (Larix occidentalis); or, rarely, on our northern peaks, Lyall's larch (Larix Lyallii), whose naked branches send out tiny fascicles of soft pale leaves; and Noble fir (Abies nobilis), stately, magnificent, proud of its supremacy over all. And you may come upon a rare cluster of Alaska cedar (Chamæcyparis nootkatensis), here at its southern limit, reaching down from the Coast range of British Columbia almost to meet the Great sugar pines (Pinus lambertiana) which come up from the granite heights of the California sierra to play an important role in the southern Oregon forests.
