Early Botanical Explorers of the Pacific Coast [pp. 409-416]

Early Bottanicatl Explorers of the Pacific Coast.
EARLY BOTANICAL EXPLORERS OF THE PACIFIC COAST.
SUCCEEDING the long and adventurous
period of Spanish exploration by land and
sea on the Pacific coast, only a stray ship
bound on distant voyages of discovery
touched at the port of Monterey, generally
at unfavorable seasons of the year; and the
few naturalists casually attached to such expeditions snatched mere fragments of its
flora to be transferred with other accumulated collections from remote regions to the
great centers of scientific investigation in
Europe, where, deposited in vast herbaria,
they could only be brought to light in ponderous tomes, inaccessible to the mass of
botanical students. To this class belong
names still worthily commemorated in botanical annals in association with some of
our more common plants, including Haenke,
Menzies, Eschscholtz, Chamisso, and others
less known, covering a period from I792 to
I825.
Of these it is not my present intention to
speak. It was at the latter date of I 8 2 5 that
the interest in Western American botany,
probably awakened by these earlier discoveries, culminated in a desire to know something more definitely of the floral productions of this region, and test their adaptation
to cultivation in corresponding Eastern districts.
Accordingly, under the auspices of the
London Horticultural Society, David Douglas, a Scotch gardener, who had in i823
made a short botanical trip to the eastern
Atlantic States, was in 1824 sent by way of
Cape Horn, destined to the western coast of
North America. The Columbia River, then
well known in the commercial world in connection with fur-trading establishments, was
the first objective point; and after a prolonged journey of eight months and fourteen
days, the formidable river bar was crossed
and anchor dropped in Baker's Bay at 4
P. M., April 7, 1825.
Landing on the 9th on Cape Disappoint
ment, the plants first to attract notice were
the showy salmon berry (Rubus sp5ectabilis),
and the salal (GaulhIeria Shallon), so common on the hills in this vicinity. Proceeding up the Columbia River, the magnificent firs and spruces, which then as now
cover the face of the country with their
somber shade, excited the admiration of
Douglas and his companion, Dr. Scouler,
the former probably hardly realizing that the
largest of these forest growths was destined
to receive the name of the Douglas spruce,
by latest authorities characterized under the
botanical name of Pseudo-Tsuga Douglasi'.
Passing rapidly over the successive steps
of this journey and the arduous inland trips
effected by land and water, it must suffice
for my present purpose to note only a few
of the more important dates having a direct
relation to the historic progress of botanical
discovery on the Pacific coast.
During this first season on the Columbia,
Mr. Douglas had his headquarters at what is
still known as Fort Vancouver. From this
point excursions were made in various directions, as far as The Dalles to the eastward,
and a short distance southward up the Willamet River, then called Multnomah. It
was on this latter trip that his attention was
first called to the existence of a gigantic
pine growing in the inaccessible wilds farther
south, his attention being called to it from
some loose seeds and scales found in an
Indian tobacco-pouch. Following up this
slender clew resulted in the discovery of
the magnificent sugar-pine, then named by
Douglas Pinus Lambertiana, after his distinguished patron, Dr. Lambert of London.
Still later in the season, on a trip to Mt.
Hood, Mr. Douglas collected and described
the elegant firs Abies nobilis and Abies
amiabilis, and from seeds then gathered large
trees of the same are now growing in the
gardens of Edinburgh.
So, with various mishaps and hindrances
1883.]
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