1811.] FRUITS AND FLOWERS. 445 



render agricultural enterprises eminently successful; but 

 where this is practicable, abundant crops will be obtained. 

 The tule marshes could readily be converted into rice fields, 

 and the interval lands will produce most of the cereal grains 

 with but a tolerable culture. Blue flax and hemp are well 

 suited to the country. In southern California, the vine (vitis 

 vinifera) thrives wonderfully, and great quantities of brandy 

 and wine are made : the volcanic soil is well adapted for vine- 

 yards; and the attention of the inhabitants will probably be 

 still more directed to the cultivation of the grape, whenever 

 the excitement in regard to the gold deposits has subsided. 



California cannot be termed well- wooded, although the high- 

 lying sections, between the Pacific and the Sierra Nevada, 

 are dotted quite frequently with forests of excellent timber, 

 and the flanks of the mountains, and the deep carious open- 

 ing into the valle}^ beneath, are fringed here and there with 

 strips of woodland. The courses of the streams, also, are 

 usually lined with belts of stately trees, or thickets of shrubby 

 undergrowth. The most valuable timber trees are the live- 

 oak, ash, pine, cedar, cypress, sycamore, willow, and cotton- 

 wood. Of the fruit-trees, pears, apples, plums, peaches, 

 oranges, limes, figs, and olives, thrive with great luxuriance, 

 where they receive proper care and attention. The pitahaya 

 {cactus pit aj ay a) is very abundant, and bears a most delicious 

 fruit. All the vegetables found in the same latitudes in other 

 parts of the world, flourish here equally well. 



The country is rich in flowering plants and creepers. 

 Beautiful mosses exhibit their long trails from the tops of tho 

 highest trees, and the mistletoe shelters itself beneath the 

 shade of the noble oak, climbs up its rugged trunk, and 

 nestles amid its tufted canopy. Among the grasses on the 

 damp flats, and the wild oats of the hilly slopes and moun- 

 tain-sides, are mingled the most valuable bulbous roots, and 

 the brightest and sweetest flowers. There are tulips and 

 hyacinths; the lily and the narcissus; golden poppies and 

 delicately tinted daisies; crimson and scarlet pinks; the fra- 

 grant graphalium ; and the medicinal canchalagna. And 



