CALIFORNIA TREE NOVELTIES 



775 



The Author and a Sequoia 



base of sequoia top left by lumbermen. five 16-foot logs were taken out. the hole was burned 

 by fire which ran through slash seven years ago. tulare county, sequoia n.\tional forest, cal. 



wealth and variety of forests for which 

 California is famous. 



The large, inspiring and beautiful in 

 the way of tree growth is confined to 

 the regions of moderate or heavy pre- 

 cipitation. Under desert conditions, 

 the flora is stunted, scanty and weird. 

 The tree yuccas contribute strikingly to 

 the desert flora. Seen from the Santa 

 Fe trains on the Mohave desert these 

 are easily the "most wild-looking deni- 

 zens of desert hills and ]3lains," but to 

 ride and live among them completes 

 the sense of weirdness which they 

 produce. To see the Joshua tree or 

 Mohave yucca by moonlight, or as 

 sometimes happens, under a fall of 

 snow, leads one to question his sanity, 



or his existence on a well ordered con- 

 ventional earth. The most beautiful 

 member of the desert flora is the 

 Washington palm, or "desert palm," 

 of which the only sjjecies found in the 

 United vStates inhabits the Colorado 

 desert and arid canyons of Southern 

 California. It is the largest of our 

 native palms, growing to an extreme 

 height of 60 to 70 feet with great leaves 

 4 feet wide and stems 5 to 6 feet long. 

 The best known grove is in Palm Can- 

 yon in the San Jacinto Mountains, 

 near Agua Calientc, 10 miles south of 

 the Southern Pacific Railroad at Sc^■en 

 Palms. 



Many visitors to the Panama Expo- 

 sitions will make the side trip to 



