way-blades and the rattlesnake plantain. In bogs, two species of
piperia, with long spikes of greenish flowers, are abundant. In drier
situations, a small form of the ladies' tresses is easily recognized
by its spiral spike of small white flowers, which are more or less
fragrant. In some of the swamps at the base of the mountain grows
_Limnorchis leucostachys_. This is one of our most fragrant flowers,
as well as one of the most beautiful, with its long spike of pure
white blossoms.

Of the ferns, the common brake is sometimes seen on the slopes near
the terminal moraines of the glaciers. On the old moraines and cliffs
is found the pea fern (_cryptogramma acrostichoides_), so called
because the pinnules of its fruiting fronds resemble those of a pea
pod. This dainty little fern with its two kinds of fronds is always
admired by mountain visitors. It is strictly a mountain fern. The deer
fern also has two kinds of fronds, but this grows all the way from sea
level to the glaciers, being at its best in the dense forest area. The
delicate oak fern grows in great abundance from Eatonville to the
timber line, and probably does more to beautify the woods than any
other fern. The sword fern grows in dense, radiate clusters, all
through the mossy woods. The fronds are often five or six feet in
length. The maidenhair fern is found along streams, waterfalls and
moist cliffs, reaching its highest development in the deep canyons cut
through the dense forest.

On the very top of Pinnacle Peak and similar elevations, grows the
beautiful mountain lace fern (_cheilanthes gracillima._) Nearly every
tourist presses a souvenir of it in his notebook. _Phegopteris
alpesteris_ is abundant along the glacial valleys, where the tall
grasses and the beautiful array of alpine plants delight the eye.
These ferns and grasses give a rich green color to the varigated
slopes where nature blends so many harmonious colors in matchless
grandeur in this great fairyland of flowers.

{p.139}
[Illustration: Wind Swept Trees on North Side, the last below the Snow
line.]

The writer has a list of about three hundred and sixty species from
the Mountain. It includes only flowering plants and ferns. There are
more than twenty type species named from the Mountain, not a few of
which are found nowhere else. Its geographical position makes it the
boundary between the arctic plants from the North and the plants of
Oregon and California from the South. Its great a