78 THE BROAD-SCLEROPHYLL VEGETATION OF CALIFORNIA. 



rounding hills are grassy, with patchwork of scrub, and the upper 

 300 meters are fairly solid chaparral, in which Adenostoma is greatly 

 predominant. In the Mount Hamilton Range we have an extensive 

 complex system made up of ridges of similar height. Penetrating 

 the mass at the point where Coyote Creek debouches into the 

 Santa Clara Valley, we encounter grassy hills, but on the first series, 

 and even on the footslope itself, are patchy remnants of chaparral, 

 mainly Adenostoma. North slopes are well forested with broad- 

 sclerophyll trees, and this is entirely natural, since these would 

 resist destruction by fire to a far greater degree than would the chapar- 

 ral, both by reason of their greater size and the better moisture 

 conditions of their habitat. Grassland is nearly continuous over 

 most of the slopes up to the summit of the first main ridge, where 

 there is a very thin forest of Pinus ponderosa, with the same meadow 

 vegetation under the trees. Eastward from here we look into the 

 heart of the mountain system, where numerous ridges are covered 

 with an irregular mosaic of chaparral and grassland. The Santa 

 Lucia Range and the mountains of San Benito County may be cited 

 as examples of the many systems in which one finally penetrates 

 to a central region of solid chaparral. 



The most convincing proofs of former control of present-day 

 grassland by chaparral are the frequent remnants that painstaking 

 search brings to light. The sharply limited patches in the midst of 

 other vegetation, in which Adenostoma is usually most prominent, 

 have already been described. Experience has shown that even a 

 single mature specimen of this plant is almost certainly a relict and 

 not a fresh arrival, since when its mass control is once thoroughly 

 destroyed it reestablishes itself with the utmost difficulty, probably 

 because of special conditions necessary for successful germination, 

 as yet undiscovered. It is fairly safe, therefore, to assume that 

 wherever mature individuals of Adenostoma remain, either isolated 

 or in patches, that that species was formerly dominant. Fence-rows, 

 pieces of rocky or unused ground, ravines, etc., are the sort of places 

 where one looks for such evidence. Using this method, which has 

 in some cases been corroborated by historical testimony, it has been 

 possible to demonstrate that dense chaparral once covered extensive 

 areas which are now grassland or under cultivation. For example, 

 the floor of the Santa Clara Valley southeast of Palo Alto, which is 

 to-day one of the great orchard regions of the State, was less than 

 half a century ago solid chaparral. The bare, grassy hills nearby, 

 with their thin young growth of oaks, were similar. Scattered but 

 full-sized individuals of Adenostoma along fences and occasional 

 patches of uncleared ground suggest this, but in the present case 

 we have direct historical evidence of the fact. 



Mr. G. F. Beardsley, a retired mining engineer now living in 

 Carmel, California, spent several years of his boyhood in this vicinity, 



