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The Journals
of Lewis and Clark: The Shrubs and Undergrowth
The following
excerpts are taken from entries of the Journals of Lewis
and Clark - Shrubs and Undergrowth. A general description
of the beasts, planys and Shrubs and Undergrowth, &c. found
by the party in this expedition.
The
undergrowth consists of honeysuckles, alder, seven bark
or nine bark, huckleberry, a shrub like the quill wood,
a plant like the mountain-holley, a green briar, the fern.
•1.
The honeysuckle common to the United States we found in
this neighborhood. We first discovered the honeysuckle on
the waters of the Kooskooskee, near the Chopunnish nation,
and again below the grand rapids.
•2.
The alder which is also common to our country, was found
in great abundance in the woodlands, on this side of the
Rocky mountains. It differs in the color of its berry: this
being of a pale sky blue, while that of the United States
is of a deep purple.
•3.
The seven bark, or, as it is usually denominated, the nine
bark of the United States, is also common to this country.
•4.
The huckleberry. There is a species of huckleberry, common
to the highlands, from the commencement of the Columblan
valley to the seacoast, rising to the height of six or eight
feet, branching and diffuse: the trunk is cylindrical, of
a dark brown color; the collateral branches are green, smooth,
and square, and put forth a number of alternate branches
of the same color, and from the two horizontal sides only.
The fruit is a small deep purple berry, held in much esteem
by the natives: the leaf is of a pale green, and small,
three-fourths of an inch in length, and three-eights in
width, oval, terminating more acutely at the apex than at
the insertion of the footstalk: the base is nearly entire,
and but slightly serrate: the footstalks are short; their
relative position is alternate, two-ranked, and proceeding
from the horizontal sides of the boughs only.
•5.
There are two species of shrubs, first seen at the grand
rapids of the Columbia, and which have since been seen elsewhere:
they grow in rich dry grounds, usually in the neighborhood
of some water course: the roots are creeping and cylindrical:
the stem of the first species is from a foot to eighteen
inches in height, and about as large as an ordinary goose
quill: it is simple, unbranched, and erect: its leaves are
cauline, compound and spreading: the leaflets are jointed,
and oppositely pinnate, three pair, and terminating in one
sextile, widest at the base, and tapering to an acuminate
point: it is an inch and a quarter in its greatest width,
and three inches and a quarter in length: each point of
the margin is armed with a subulate thorn, and from thirteen
to seventeen in number: are veined, glossy, carinated and
wrinkled: their points obliquely tending towards the extremity
of the common footstalk: the stem of the second species
is procumbent, about the size of that of the first species,
jointed and unbranched: its leaves are cauline, compound,
and oppositely pinnate: the rib is from fourteen to sixteen
inches in length, cylindric and smooth: the leaflets are
two inches and a half long, and one inch wide, and of the
greatest width half an inch form the base: this they regularly
surround, and from the same point tapering to an acute apex:
this is usually terminated with a small subulate thorn:
they are jointed and oppositely pinnate, consisting of six
pair, and terminating in one: sessile, serrate, and ending
in a small subulate spire, from twenty-five to twenty-seven
in number: they are smooth, plain, and of a deep green,
and allobliquely tending towards the extremity of the footstalk:
they retain their green all winter.
The
large leafed thorn, has a leaf about two inches and a half
long, which is petiolate, and conjugate: the leaflets are
petiolate, acutely pointed, having their margins cut with
unequal and irregular incissures: the shrub, which we had
once mistaken for the large leafed thorn, resembled the
stem of that shrub, excepting the thorn: it bears a large
three headed leaf: the briar is of the class polyandria,
and order poligymnia: the flowers are single: the peduncle
long and cylindrical: the calyx is a perianth, of one leaf,
five cleft, and acutely pointed: the perianth is proper,
erect, inferior in both petals, and germen: the corolla
consists of five acute, pale scarlet petals, inserted in
the receptacle with a short and narrow cleft: the corolla
is smooth, moderately long, situated at the base of the
germen, permanent, and in shape resembling a cup: the stamens
and filaments are subulate, inserted into the receptacle,
unequal and bent inwards, concealing the pystilium: the
anther is two lobed and influted, situated on the top of
the filament of the pystilium: the germ is conical, imbricated,
superior, sessile and short: the styles are short, compared
with the stamen, capillary smooth and obtuse: they are distributed
over the surface of the germ, and deciduous without any
perceptible stamen.
•7. The green briar grows most abundantly in rich dry lands,
in the vicinity of a water course, and is found in small
quantities in piny lands at a distance from the water. In
the former situation the stem is frequently of the size
of a man's finger, and rises perpendicularly four or five
feet: it then descends in an arch, becomes procumbent, or
rests on some neighboring plants: it is simple, unbranched,
and cylindric: in the latter situation it grows much smaller,
and usually procumbent: the stem is armed with sharped and
forked briars: the leaf is petiolate, ternate and resembles
in shape and appearance that of the purple raspberry, so
common to the Atlantic states: the fruit is a berry resembling
the blackberry in all points, and is eaten when ripe by
the natives, which they hold in much esteem, although it
is not dried for winter consumption. This shrub was first
discovered at the entrance of Quicksand river: it grows
so abundantly in the fertile valley of Columbia, and the
islands, that the country is almost impenetrable: it retains
its verdure late in summer.
•8.
Besides the fern already described, as furnishing a nutritious
root, there are two other plants of the same species, which
may be divided into the large and the small: the large fern
rises three or four feet: the stem is a common footstalk,
proceeding immediately from the radix, somewhat flat, about
the size of a man's arm, and covered with innumerable black
coarse capillary radicles, issuing from every part of its
surface: one of these roots will send forth from twenty
to forty of these common footstalks, bending outwards from
the common centre: the ribs are cylindric and marked longitudinally
their whole length, with a groove on the upper side: on
either side of this groove, and a little below its edge
the leaflets are inserted: these are shortly petiolate for
about two thirds the length of the middle rib, commencing
from the bottom, and from thence to the extremity sessile:
the rib is terminated by a single undivided lanceolate leaflet:
these are from two to four inches in length, and have a
small acute angular projection, and obliquely cut at the
base: the upper surface is smooth, and of a deep green:
the under surface of a pale green and covered with a brown
protuberance of a woolly appearance, particularly near the
central fibre: the leaflets are alternately pinnate, and
in number, from one hundred and ten to one hundred and forty:
they are shortest at the two extremities of the common footstalk,
largest in the centre, gradually lengthening, and diminishing
as they succeed each other.
The
small fern rises likewise with a common footstalk from the
radix, from four to eight in number: from four to eight
inches long: the central rib is marked with a slight longitudinal
groove throughout its whole length: the leaflets are oppositely
pinnate, about one third of the length of the common footstalk,
from the bottom, and thence alternately pinnate: the footstalk
terminates in a simple undivided lanceolate leaflet: these
are oblong, obtuse, convex, absolutely entire, and the upper
disk is marked with a slight longitudinal groove: near the
upper extremity these leaflets are decursively pinnate,
as are all those of the large fern. Both of these species
preserve green during the winter.
Accounts of the
Plants
Accounts
of the Fruits and Berries
Accounts of the
Trees
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