MOUNT TAMALPA1S. 



7' 



land view: Mount Hamilton, the site of the Lick Observatory of 

 the University of California; Mount Diablo, the base and merid- 

 ian of the United States land surveys of central California; and 

 Mount St. Helena, a volcanic peak the summit of which is common 

 to Napa, Sonoma, and Lake Counties, and whose spurs are noted 

 for their quicksilver mines, mineral and hot springs. 



The plant life of the immediate Tamalpais region is abundant 

 and interesting; the flowering plants are represented by about 

 eighty orders, three hundred and fifty genera, and from seven to 

 eight hundred species, of which about one hundred are trees and 

 shrubs.* Some of the Sierra forms occur on Mount Tamalpais, 

 and it is also the locus of the most southerly extension of certain 

 boreal species. Owing to the wide range of temperature, moisture 

 conditions, and exposures, many of these plants can be found in 

 bloom during every week in the year. During the warm, moist 



Map showing Location of Railroad from Mill Valley to Summit of Mount 

 Tamalpais. 



autumn and winter the hardiest species bloom from October to 

 April in protected areas, and in the cold, exposed areas these same 

 species require the heat of the season from April to September to 

 bring them into bloom. Thus, within a radius of four or five miles 

 from the summit there is not a week in the year when the flowers 

 of certain species can not be gathered — this in face of the fact that 



* Estimated by Mi 

 Academy of Sciences. 



Eastwood, curator of the Department of Botany of the California 



