xcept lichens. The
roots penetrate deeply into the crevices of the lava rocks, enabling
it to withstand the fierce winds. The flowers, which appear in
August, are white, shading to pink, and the red berries, which are not
especially palatable on account of their insipid taste and numerous
seeds, are abundant in September. Another new Mt. Rose _ribes_
has been named _Churchii_ in honor of Professor J.E. Church, Jr.,
whose original work at the Mt. Rose Observatory is described in the
chapter devoted to that purpose.

Growing at elevations of from 6000 to 10,000 feet, displaying a
profusion of white flowers sometimes delicately tinged with light
purple is the _Phlox Douglasii_, Hook. It is low but with loose,
much-branched prostrate stems and remarkably stout, almost woody
roots.

A new Alpine willow (_Salix Caespitosa_) has also been
discovered. Professor Kennedy thus writes of it:

The melting snow, as it comes through and over the rocks in
the nature of a spring, brings with it particles of sand and
vegetation, which form a very shallow layer of soil on a flat
area to one side of the main branch of the stream. On this the
willow branches adhere like ivy, rooting at every joint and
interlaced so as to form a dense mat. From these, erect leafy
shoots, one or two inches high, appear, with the many flowered
catkins extending above the foliage. The pistillate plants
occupy separate but adjacent areas to the staminate ones.

[Illustration: Professor Fergusson at the Fergusson Meteorograph
at Mt. Rose Observatory. 10,090 Feet]

[Illustration: An Alpine White Pine, Defying the Storms, on the
North Slope of Mt. Rose, 9,500 Ft.]

[Illustration: Tallac, Lake Tahoe]

[Illustration: Looking North from Cave Rock, Lake Tahoe]

CHAPTER XXXI

THE CHAPARRAL OF THE TAHOE REGION

The word _chaparral_ is a Spanish word, transferred bodily into
our language, without, however, retaining its strict and original
significance. In Spanish it means a plantation of evergreen oaks, or,
thick bramble-bushes entangled with thorny shrubs in clumps. Hence,
in the west, it has come to mean any low or scrub brush that thickly
covers a hill or mountain-side. As there is a varied chaparral in the
Tahoe region, it is well for the visitor to know of what it is mainly
composed.

Experience has demonstrated that where the larger lumber is cut
off close on the Sierran slopes of the Tahoe region the low