154 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[May, 



times higher than it is thick, and beautifully 

 rounded at the top. Approaching closer, until 

 one by one the lesser trees and puny shrubs 

 shi'ink aside, leaving a broad open space ai'ound 

 the knoll on which this royal tree grows, we are 

 chiefly impressed by the wonderful proportion 

 of trunk and head. The body of the tree is an 

 arrowy column without a ridge or knot, scar or 

 furrow, crook or blemish ; the crown rises as the 

 curves of an antique vase, each line and limb 

 blending in harmony. I walked around the tree 

 several times, but from no point of view was 

 the slightest irregularity discoverable. There 

 was no broken limb or withered leaf, it was in 

 the prime of its superb existence. I climbed a 

 point of rock from which I could overlook it, 

 and the perfectness of every outline was still the 

 same. After I had feasted eye and fancy with 

 this rare symmetry, I bethought me that in 

 after years a measurement might be valuable, 

 and these were the figures : Girth of trunk, five 

 feet from the ground, thirty-four feet lacking 

 one inch; distance to the lowest branches, a 

 trifle over twenty feet. I had no way of obtain- 

 ing the total height of the tree, but after obser- 

 ving its shadow carefully, and the comparative 

 heights of other trees, I placed it at seventy-five 

 feet. 



In the northern portion of the Coast Range, 

 and in the County of Trinity, there is a remark- 

 able specimen of the Madrona tree. Trinity 

 County is one of the most unfrequented parts of 

 our State, and is full of wild scenery and strange 

 geological formations. Its flora also, especially 

 in the ferns and lilies is unique and but slightly 

 studied. I took a mountain trail from the old 

 mining town of Douglas City, one morning, and 

 went westward, towards Humboldt County. 

 After many hours of travel I found myself where 

 several trails met, and hardly knew which one 

 to take. Hearing footsteps, I waited, and soon 

 a lean, gray-haired, buck-skinned man, who 

 proved to be a pocket miner, came in sight. Of 

 him, inquiring, I received this notable reply : 



"Jest ye ride on up that crumlin' slate ridge, 

 an' bime-bye ye '11 see the crookedest tree thet 

 ever grow'd. Then ye take the lef hand road." 



Half a mile further I came upon a seamed 

 and broken rock, looming up like the prow of a 

 petrified Great Eastern. Against its gray front 

 a flattened, twisted, crawling and interlaced 

 pattern of intense scarlet crowned by a mass of 

 glossy leaves appeared. It was the " crookedest 

 tree that ever growed," and it was a Madrona, 



which, starting at the base of the rock, had fol- 

 lowed an open crevice and almost filled it with 

 branches, then reaching the top had made a 

 beautiful mass of foliage, and finally, to reveal 

 its own patient and curious work, had split off 

 the face of the rock, whose fragments were 

 lying at the base. In point of size the tree was 

 remarkable. Ordinarily the Madrona does not 

 grow over one foot in diameter, and nine inches 

 would be a fairer limit •, but at one point, a few 

 feet from the ground, this tree had found room 

 to grow naturally, and there it was seven feet in 

 girth. Some of the larger limbs were several 

 feet wide and only a few inches thick ; number- 

 less times they had touched and grown together 

 or past each other, or twined back, forming cir- 

 cles. Some limbs had entirely lost their rich 

 color, and others were dead, the struggle for life 

 having evidently been intense, but the few which 

 had reached the top safely had broadened out 

 under the full southern exposure, and made, as 

 I said, a very beautiful head. Having crumbled 

 off the irksome surface of the rock, the tree 

 was making efforts to sprout at the base, and a 

 few green leaves were already visible. Doubt- 

 less long ere now the whole wall of rock, which 

 appeared to be about twenty feet wide and thirty 

 feet high, is completely covered with the foliage 

 of this natural espalier tree. 



Along the western edge of Shasta Co., and on 

 the higher levels of the Sierras, is a belt of vir- 

 gin forest of sugar pine, P. Lambertiana, mingled 

 with Librocedrus decurrens and other stately 

 species. Beside a narrow wagon road which 

 winds through these fragrant woods, there stands 

 a single large sugar pine, which is called the 

 '' Cannon Tree." It is not in itself at all re- 

 markable, but thrust at right angles through its 

 trunk, like a pencil through a bean pod, is a 

 straight log some twenty-five feet long and two 

 feet in diameter. The growing pine has closed 

 completely around it, and only a slight scar is 

 visible. The " cannon," blackened on the end 

 by some former forest fire, is about ten feet from 

 the ground. If there has been a union of two 

 trunks above the log, it leaves little trace, and 

 the simple mountaineers puzzle their heads in 

 vain over the mystery. Kot far from this place 

 there stands a Douglas Spruce, which girths nine 

 or eleven inches, a great size for that species. 

 Lower down on the ridge we measured a Pinus 

 Torreya, whose immense buttresses caught our 

 attention. Girth, five feet from the ground, 

 sixteen feet nearly. At the surface this would 



