the trunk, one on the north side, the other on the
west, forming picturesque, romantic seats. The
largest of the main branches is eighteen feet and nine
inches in circumference, and some of the long pendulous
branchlets droop over the stream at the foot of the
fall where it is gray with spray. The leaves
are glossy yellow-green, ever in motion from the wind
from the fall. It is a fine place to dream in,
with falls, cascades, cool rocks lined with hypnum
three inches thick; shaded with maple, dogwood, alder,
willow; grand clumps of lady-ferns where no hand may
touch them; light filtering through translucent leaves;
oaks fifty feet high; lilies eight feet high in a
filled lake basin near by, and the finest libocedrus
groves and tallest ferns and goldenrods.
In the main river canyon below the Vernal Fall and
on the shady south side of the Valley there are a
few groves of the silver fir (Abies concolor), and
superb forests of the magnificent species round the
rim of the Valley.
On the tops of the domes is found the sturdy, storm-enduring
red cedar (Juniperus occidentalis). It never
makes anything like a forest here, but stands out
separate and independent in the wind, clinging by slight
joints to the rock, with scarce a handful of soil in
sight of it, seeming to depend chiefly on snow and
air for nourishment, and yet it has maintained tough
health on this diet for two thousand years or more.
The largest hereabouts are from five to six feet in
diameter and fifty feet in height.
The principal river-side trees are poplar, alder,
willow, broad-leaved maple, and Nuttall’s flowering
dogwood. The poplar (Populus trichocarpa), often
called balm-of-Gilead from the gum on its buds, is
a tall tree, towering above its companions and gracefully
embowering the banks of the river. Its abundant
foliage turns bright yellow in the fall, and the Indian-summer
sunshine sifts through it in delightful tones over
the slow-gliding waters when they are at their lowest
ebb.
Some of the involucres of the flowering dogwood measure
six to eight inches in diameter, and the whole tree
when in flower looks as if covered with snow.
In the spring when the streams are in flood it is the
whitest of trees. In Indian summer the leaves
become bright crimson, making a still grander show
than the flowers.
The broad-leaved maple and mountain maple are found
mostly in the cool canyons at the head of the Valley,
spreading their branches in beautiful arches over
the foaming streams.
Scattered here and there are a few other trees, mostly
small—the mountain mahogany, cherry, chestnut-oak,
and laurel. The California nutmeg (Torreya californica),
a handsome evergreen belonging to the yew family,
forms small groves near the cascades a mile or two
below the foot of the Valley.
The Forest Trees in General
