Go where we please in nature, we receive in proportion 

 as we give. — Thomas Wentworth Higginson. 



The Guide to Nature. 



EDUCATION AND RECREATION 



Vol. I 



OCTOBER, 1908 



No. 7 



outdoor, world 



Among the Trees in Southern California 



BY JESSIE PORTER WHITAKER, PASADENA, CALIF. 



E of the east, before visit- 

 ing- California, are apt to 

 think of it as a land of 

 orange and lemon groves, 

 of palms and banana trees. 

 All these and more burst 

 upon our delighted vision 

 when, in the gray dawn of Thanksgiving 

 Day. the Overland bore us from snow- 

 bound mountain passes into summer 

 land. 



So soon does novelty wear off and the 

 unusual become the commonplace — palms 

 have almost ceased to interest us while 

 the sight of a maple tree would awaken 

 an outburst of enthusiasm. To a new- 

 comer, passing through the residential 

 streets of Los Angeles, the tropical 

 growth in even - dooryard is a striking 



sight. Scarcely a place, however hum- 

 ble, without its palm tree, and there is 

 frequently a full grown date palm, its 

 leaves all starting from the top of the 

 trunk, arches in curves of wondrous 

 grace forming a green canopy over the 

 entire lawn. 



To appreciate the value of the palms 

 for landscape gardening, visit the beauti- 

 ful places in Pasadena where, amid the 

 broad expanse of lawns against a back- 

 ground of the sweeping date palm, are 

 picturesque groups of smaller varieties. 

 Here are fan palms, stiff but very tropi- 

 cal in appearance, their great fan leaves 

 with ragged edges growing on straight, 

 saw-toothed stems from the top of the 

 odd looking, scaly trunks. Small speci- 

 mens suggest an enormous pineapple 



Copyright 1908 by The Agassiz Association. Stamford. Conn. 



