Snow is vital to mountain flowers. It provides most of the moisture for their growth and governs the length of the growing season. Spring flowers appear earliest where the snow melts first. Where snow piles up deeply, it may not melt completely till midsummer or may melt too late for plants to complete a season’s growth. On northern slopes the snow may remain all summer, and there can be no growing season. The high country has many floral patterns, which change as the seasons progress. The flower displays are usually best around the middle of July. Flowers of spring, summer, and autumn are blooming then, according to the progress of the seasons in different elevations and habitats. [Illustration: ALPINE FIR GROWS NEAR TIMBERLINE.] [Illustration: WESTERN REDCEDAR BARK HAS FAIRLY REGULAR NARROW GROOVES AND RIDGES.] [Illustration: NEXT TO THE SEQUOIAS OF CALIFORNIA, DOUGLAS-FIR IS THE GREATEST TREE IN THE FORESTS OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE.] [Illustration: WESTERN REDCEDAR. CONES ARE ABUNDANT ON SOME TREES.] How To Identify Some Common Plants Out of more than a thousand kinds of trees, shrubs, ferns, and flowering herbs on the Olympic Peninsula, 28 are described in the following paragraphs. While this is but a small fraction of the total, they represent the most common and noticeable plants that can be identified easily. The park is a sanctuary for all natural features, and care should be taken not to disturb, injure, or destroy trees, flowers, or other plantlife. TREES DOUGLAS-FIR (_Pseudotsuga menziesii_) gives principal distinction to the Northwest forests. Growing from sea level to 5,000 feet elevation, it is the most abundant and widespread tree on the Olympic Peninsula. Average mature trees in the virgin forests of the lowlands are 180 to 250 feet in height and 4 to 6 feet in diameter. The largest on record—14 feet 5 inches in diameter—is located in the Queets River Valley, about 3½ miles by trail from the end of the road. Next to the sequoias of California the Douglas-fir is the largest tree in the forest of the Western Hemisphere. Large Douglas-firs in the forest commonly have nearly cylindrical boles, clear of limbs for a hundred feet. Such trees have a reddish-brown bark which is rough with ridges and deep furrows. The cones, whether on the tree or on the ground beneath the tree, provide easy and reliable identification. They are mostly 2½ to 3 inches long with 3-pointed, thin bracts protruding among the scales. The seeds are a favorite food of the Douglas squirrel.