"MAN OF GRASS"

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 51, 1 March 1930, Page 9

"MAN OF GRASS"

THE DOUGLAS FIR

SCOTTISH DISCOVERER

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER., sth. February.

The discovery of the famous Douglas fir, known for two generations in Australia and New Zealand as '' Oregon pine," often credited to Sir James Douglas, first Governor of British Columbia, was made by David Douglas, a Scottish gardener, born at Scone in 1798. His interest iv trees and plants won for him a commission from the Royal Horticultural Society to go on a scientific expedition to the Pacific Coast of North America, in 1825. He arrived at Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia Biver, after a voyage round Capo Horn.

From here ho explored the wilderness that is now Oregon, and was the first to give to tho world, aeeurato information regarding the marvellous coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest.

, Within a few years, with interest definitely awakened to the wonders of the flora of tho Pacific Coast, Douglas led a second expedition to tho West. Landing at Monterey, California, his inland progress was frustrated by hostile Indians. Nevertheless, he went on, and, fifty miles north of the Californian border, he discovered the queen of Californian pines, the sugar pine (Pinus Lainbertiana). Noticing Indians with tobacco pouches full of fcdible seeds, ho asked their1 source, but they were suspicious, and would not help him. When he discovered the pine, ho found the' cones were a hundred feet high, so he shot a few down, with his rifle. This brought- the Indians in war-paint, ready' to fight, but Douglas convinced them that his rifle would be a very terrible weapon if they molested him. They let him go, and from his interest in plants and flowers, they called him "tho man of grass."

Douglas met a tragic end on the Sandwich Islands, where lie ]ed a third expedition. lie fall into a trap that had been dug for wild animals. A bull had fallen in shortly before him, and Douglas was an easy victim to the maddened animal's rage. Bescuers found Ws dog standing guard, over his bundle, which he left some distante away.