WHAT'S IN A NAME

History beckons from the Park's skyline. The various typographic features of "The Mountain" are visible monuments to the memory of Stevens, Van Trump, Kautz, Sluiskin, Wapowety, Ingraham, Emmons and many others who have played a part in the early history of this region. These prominent features are easily recognized and so we come to be well acquainted with the personalities for whom they are named.

Yet there are others -- men of scientific trend -- whose contributions to their various fields of endeavor have been recognized. Their names, too, have been attached to some feature in their particular line. This is especially true in botany where in the names of flowers and trees we may read the romance of scientific research and become acquainted with the personalities which have contributed lifetimes of painstaking study in this field of endeavor.

Douglas, the great Scotch botanist, of the 19th century has a lasting and magnificent memorial in the huge trees that bear his name. And the Douglas Fir can afford to be proud of its namesake for the Scotchman was not only a great botanist but an explorer and a pioneer as well -- a man who was as familiar with the hardships of an unexplored trail as he as familiar with the tedious and tiring endeavors of the laboratory. He was among the first to undertake a study of the flora of the Pacific Northwest and solved the mystery of the Douglas Fir. His investigations proved that this tree was not a surprise, a hemlock, a yew or even a fir -- that it belonged to an entirely separate tree group. And so he called it Pseudotsuga Taxifolia which means "False-Hemlock-with-foliage-like-a-yew". Tolmie, an Englishman, who was connected with the Hudson's Bay Co. in the early days of the Northwest, is commemorated in a two fold manner. Tolmie's Peak in the Carbon River section of the Park and Tolmie's Saxifrage, a tiny flower that is found high upon the mountainside among the barren, rocky soil that has just been evacuated by the glaciers, bear his name. Tolmie has the honor of being the first white man to enter the region which is now Mt. Rainier National Park -- the result of this early excursion being a "Botanizing expedition" that carried him and his party to the region of the peack that bears his name. Then there is the Twinflower whose technical name - Linneae americana - keeps alive the memory of linneas, one of the foremost botanists of all time. Sweden claims him as a native son and he is famous among botanists for giving us the first scientific botanical classification -- the classification which serves as a basis for plant identification to this day. The Twinflower is one of delicate beauty and is a member of the Honeysuckle Family. Along the forest trails it vies for the attention of the passerby with its exquisite fragrance. Then there is Lyall's Lupine, Suksdorf's Buttercup and the name of Engelman is perpetuated by the spruce which bears his name.

These are but a few of the more common trees and flowers which bear the names of distinguished botanists. They give indication of the varied interest that our flower fields possess, for, beautiful that they are, their beauty is but a portion of their interest.

BIRD'S NESTS

Many birds are now busy with their domestic problems in the sub-alpine parks. A pair of flickers, nesting in an old snag near one corner of the Community Bldg., are a feature of never ending interest on the part of visitors. And the birds do not seem to be suffering in the least from stage fright -- carrying on the homemaking duties as usual, much to the delight of the onlookers. Then there is a Junco who has selected a spot on the inside of the Community Bldg. - in the dormer windows - for his nest. Regardless of what prompted this bird to select this spot his choice of a view is unsurpassed for this point overlooks the entire scope of the rugged Tatoosh Range. Another Junco has constructed a nest near the Nature Trail -- has built it on the fround and has shielded it from curious eyes by a lattice like arrangement of grasses. Three eggs were found in this nest.