THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 9 



making its "last ditch" fight for existence. This tree is 

 found growing in a wild state nowhere else on earth. There 

 are two groves ; the larger of the two is north of Carmel 

 Bay and extends along the sea for about two miles and 

 backward from the sea about forty rods. The other is 

 south of Carmel Bay and is only a few acres in extent cov- 

 ering the rugged headlands of Point Lobos. Many of the 

 trees have a most precarious foothold in crevices of the 

 bare wind-swept and wave-beaten promontories and cliffs. 

 These trees in exposed situations are often fantastically 

 molded by the force of the ocean winds. One in the north 

 grove has the appearance of a gigantic bird and is locally 

 known as the ostrich tree. The south grove on Point Lobos 

 grows on such rocky storm-beaten headlands that no other 

 tree on earth, so far as I know, would ever attempt to dis- 

 possess it of its wild home. Its fight is with ocean winds 

 and angry seas. Most of the north grove is on more level 

 ground and it is closely beset by a dense forest of Monterey 

 pine, which rises in a pure stand on sail sides of it except the 

 seaward side, and crowds into it at many places almost as 

 far as the edges of the cliffs. As one sees the pines encirc- 

 ling the cypresses and crowding in among them he can 

 almost believe that the pines are making their final assault 

 on the cypresses with the determination of pushing them 

 into the sea. The guides have some wonderful stories to 

 tell of these old cypresses, and many tourists go away 

 firmly believing that they are cedars of Lebanon planted 

 by the early Franciscan padres. This seems to be a case 

 of the use of fiction where the truth would be far more im- 

 pressive and more deeply interesting. 



