230 



ARBORICULTURE 



rains moistened it. causing its determina- 

 tion. Its tiny roots crept intt) llic little 

 crevice and secured a fimtini,^. Little 

 bv little it spreatl its brandies upward 

 and ])usbed its rootlets deeper into the 

 ti^ranite mass. Into this crevice water 

 lodi^^ed. frost helped the tree to o])eii 

 wider the fissures and push deeper its 

 roots, until now it has become a tree 



])()wer l)i-\(iiid the ken of man. W'c have 

 not yit learned all the laws of nature. As 

 we cannot explain how lii^htninsr is 

 drawn, unseen, unheard, aloni^ the wire, 

 carryinti; with it the human voice, al- 

 thoujT^h our friend who speaks is a 

 thousand miles away, neither can we tell 

 how the tree attracts the rains, gatherinjj 

 the moisture necessarv for its existence. 



Permission of Southern Pacific Il.aihv.-iy. 



vosDMiri: \.\i.i.i:v. cai. 



three feet in diameter and one hundred 

 and twenty-five feet high. 



From the stage road it .seems a tinv 

 shrub, as it stands alone against this 

 massive granite wall, and it is pointed 

 out to the tourist as the tree which grows 

 without soil. 



As I looked upon this sentinel tree I 

 was persuaded that it possessed some 



and makes its growth seven hundred feet 

 away from the nearest soil, high up on 

 the face of this massive granite rock. 



On the return trip, again spending a 

 night at Wawona, I visited the Mariposa 

 grove of sequoias — several views from 

 which have been given at various times 



in AkliORICULTURE. 



