Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/304

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298
OREGON AND WASHINGTON.

white and yellow; and others whose names are unknown to us, or which have been forgotten.

Of flowering grasses, and delicate flowering vines that run on the ground in the woods, there are several; but their botanical names are unknown, and they have no common names except in two instances. One of these is a spicy, little, running vine called Oregon tea, common in all woods; and the other is a beautiful myrtle which is found about Puget Sound, in the shade of the giant trees. Of ferns and mosses, there is an endless variety in the woods, and on the rocks of Western Oregon and Washington.

The prevailing colors of wild flowers in Western Oregon are purple, yellow, and white, with a fair proportion of pink or red. In Eastern Oregon, there are still fewer red flowers. Blue flowers are very rare in any portion of this country, as, we believe, they are everywhere. We remember to have seen some lovely blue flowers growing in the sands between Wallula and the first crossing of the Touchet, but we did not get any of them. Buff or salmon color is still rarer, the Collomia being the only one we remember seeing. Yet with all the different shades of the common purple, yellow, white, and red, with their differing forms, a great deal of beauty may be expressed; and the prairies of Oregon and Washington, east and west, present a delightful bouquet of tints in the summer months.

Very few flowers of the Wallamet Valley are fragrant; while, on the contrary, very many of those found east of the Cascades are highly perfumed; as they are also in Southern Oregon, where the blue violet, quite scentless near the Columbia, is deliciously fragrant. Of the early spring flowers common to the