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14
[[underline]] Characters of [[\underline]]

These Prairies burst upon the weary traveller who may have toiled all day through the tangled forest, like oases in a desert.
[[left margin]] flowers [[\left margin]]  From February to July they are beautifully spangled with flowers of every hue and of endless variety of form as excelling those that ornament [[?lons]] fields & meadows in the East.
The botanist recognises many familiar genera but few Eastern species.
[[left margin]] species [[\left margin]]  (Here mention the most striking).
(A few have been already met with on the sandy prairies of the coast, and others have wandered north from California or west from the Rocky Mts).
We hardly expect many peculiar species in a region almost entirely devoted to forests.  And almost all are confined to the prairie, very few extending beyond its limits into the forests.
An instance of the meeting of these allied species spreading in opposite directions is found in the two Elders of this country.
[[left margin]] Sambuc. Pubens S.[[?glabra]] [[\left margin]]The red berried kind found throughout northern America and Europe is common in the dark woods, while one with blue berries, common in California, and other open regions west of the Rocky Mts. here appears only on the prairies, tho' it may be within a few yards of its more northern neighbor.

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15
[[underline]] the Prairies [[\underline]]

[[left margin]] Extent [[\left margin]]  The most extensive prairie regions are scattered through Whitby's Island, about the head of Puget's Sound and thence southward about the upper Chehalis & Cowlitz Rivers to the Columbia.  South of this they appear along the Willamette and towards its head expand into a great plain which continues with belts of forest along the mountains to Rogue River where the country gradually merges into a Californian appearance and vegetable character.  
[[left margin]] Limits [[\left margin]]  In fact the dividing ridge between these two rivers is the natural southern boundary of the true Columbian Valleys.  As already mentioned these prairies having all much of the vegetation and character of California, they are all very similar - though the prevalence of some plants is greater according to the amount of moisture prevailing on them.
[[left margin]] Northern plants. [[\left margin]]  But on Whitby's Island we find an approach to the vegetation of the far north, in a few genera at least.
[[left margin]] so far north [[\left margin]]  Here also we meet a [[?few/two]] plants in the forest, not before seen, and as usual they are of species which extend entirely across the continent.  
[[left margin]] [[drawing of hand with index finger pointing east]] [[\left margin]]  These are the Great Laurel, & Canadian Shepherdia. 
A new Thuja also appears which is peculiar to the coast from here northward.
[[left margin]] To P.8 [[\left margin]]  (Also mention. Popul.tremul. & eth.bals.)