Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/294

288 It is very generally removed into gardens for ornament.

In damp places away from the rivers, grows the rose-colored spirea (S. Douglassii), in close thickets; and is commonly known as hardhack. Near such swamps are others of wild roses of several varieties, all beautiful.

It is almost impossible to give the names of the numerous kinds of trees and shrubs which grow in close proximity in the forests of Oregon. Beginning at the river's brink, we have willows, from the red cornel, whose crimson stems are so beautiful, to the coarse, broad-leafed C. Pubescens, ash, cottonwood, and balsam-poplar. On the low ground, roses, crab-apple, buckthorn, wild cherry. A little higher, service-berry, wild cherry again, red-flowering currant, white spirea, mock-orange, honeysuckle, low blackberry, raspberry, dogwood, arbutus, barberry, snowberry, hazel, elder, and alder. Gradually mixing with these, as they leave the line of high-water, begin the various firs, which will not grow with their roots in water. As the forest increases in density, the flowering shrubs become more rare; re-appearing at the first opening.

It would be impossible to exaggerate the beauty of such masses of luxuriant and flowering shrubbery covering the shores of the streams. Even the great walls of basalt, which are frequently exposed along the Columbia, are so overgrown with minute ferns, and vivid-green mosses, and vines, as to be much more beautiful and picturesque than they are forbidding.

In Southern Oregon, the botany of the forest changes perceptibly, some species of the Columbia River disappearing, and others taking their place; the