Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/302

296 In Southern Oregon, the Rhododendron maximum is one of the glories of the mountain-tops, with its immense branches of rose-colored flowers. It is occasionally seen in gardens. The buff-colored Azalea occidentalis is also confined to the southern and eastern portions of Oregon. It is said that the clematis grows east of the Cascades, but we have not seen it; and also the ilex-leaved mahonia. The wild grape (Vitis Californica) is another shrub or vine which is confined to the southern portion of Oregon. In the Rogue River Valley, in October, it is a striking ornament in the landscape; the foliage being turned a rich ruby-red color, and forming clumps upon the ground, or hanging pendent from way-side trees. It does not seem, however, to furnish much fruit.

Of field flowers, there are a great many in all parts of Oregon and Washington; beginning with the early spring to beautify the earth, and kind succeeding kind throughout the summer and autumn. There are, especially near the Columbia, where the soil which covers the rocks is often a thin, black mold, countless varieties and species of very minute flowers, so small frequently as to need a microscope to analyze them successfully; but of lovely shapes and colors. We have found within the range of an acre forty kinds of flowering plants in the month of July, half of them of this minute size.

Of the plants peculiar to the North-west which bear handsome flowers, the Camas family is prominent. The Camasia esculenta, or edible camas, of whose roots the Indians make bread, grows about eighteen inches high, and bears at top a bunch of star-shaped flowers, of a beautiful lavender color, with a golden centre. The leaves grow from the root, and are lanceolate.