A SCEXE I-KIIM Till. (UNIX 1)1- LAKES. GOLUEX (,ATE I'AKK 



Golden Gate Park, San Francisco 



By John. McLaren. California 



III !^an Francisco ciimprises tliirt)- 

 ir, size frcmi two Id ten hundred 



The I'ark System 

 three parks \ar\inL; 

 acres. 



The largest park in the system. Golden (iate Park, 

 is located on the easterly shore of the Pacific Ocean 

 and has a frontage on the ocean of half a mile. Its 

 entiVe area has heen reclaimed from the shifting;" sand 

 dune state by planting, until now it ranks in man\ re- 

 spects with the best parks in the country. 



\Miere barren sand dunes prevailed a few years ago 

 there is now one thousand acres of planted land C(t\'- 

 ered with a growth of healthy forest trees and flcAver- 

 ing shrubs, also lakes, ponds and waterfalls, children's 

 playgrounds, baseball meadi>ws. a stadium (in which 

 is located a trotting track, a fi\e-eighths mile bicycle 

 track, a quarter mile cinder path, and football and 

 cricket fields), miles of drives, walks and bridle roads, 

 tennis courts and conser\'atories. 



The Spreckels Temple of Music is a beautiful struc- 

 ture liuilt of grey sandstone with peristyle effect, fortv- 

 five feet in width and seventy-five feet high accommo- 

 dating one hundred musicians, costing in the neighbor- 

 hood of $75,000, and the gift of Claus Spreckels. In 

 front of the temple is a terraced out-of-door auditorium 

 with a seating capacity for twenty thousand persons. 

 shaded with a leafy canopy of elm. linden and svcamore 

 trees. Around the concert grounds is a doulile carriage 

 drive where autos and carriages parade and their occu- 

 pants can have pleasant greetings .with their friends 

 when they meet or pass each other while listening to 

 the music. 



There are also rocky ravines with hundreds of stateh' 

 tree ferns with stems fifteen or more feet in height 

 and leaves ten feet lont,'^ and six to eight feet wide, in 



perfect health and making splendid growth iiniler shade 

 trees on the stems of which tiie .Staghorn ferns are 

 gr<_iwing vigorously, creating a strarige effect new to 

 American parks. 



The forests contain fine sjiecimens of native and 

 exotic trees, most of which are peculiar to California 

 and cannot be grown successfully in any other state 

 in the Union. 



California is \ery rich in \ariety of native trees, es- 

 pecially the conifers, most of which are now repre- 

 sented in the Park S\stem. The coniferous collection 

 includes the Abies Bracteata. the rare Picia Breweri- 

 ana. the Abies concolor. Abies Magnifica and Nobilis. 

 the Pinus Lamljertiana. Pinus insighis. Pinus Torrey- 

 ana. Cupressus Macrocarpa, Cupressus Lawsoniana, 

 MacNabiana and (ioxeniana. and, of course, the two 

 .Sequoias : Sequoia Sempervirens and Sequoia Gigan- 

 tea. the Libocedrius decurrens. the Thuya occidentalis 

 and gigantea. etc. There may also be seen many ex- 

 otic firs, pine and spruce, including the beautiful Abies 

 Morinda from the Himalayans. the cedars of Lel^anon. 

 the Mount Atlas cedar and the cedar of India, all doing 

 well and enjoying good Ijealth. Native oaks are also 

 well represented, many of the thirty species native to 

 the State becides many eastern and Eumpeans being 

 fairly represented. 



The California population has been recruited from 

 manv of the nations of the earth and when emigrating- 

 have brought with them or sent back for favorite trees, 

 shrubs and flowers from their former homes. Our 

 friends from the northern States brought their Elms, 

 their Maples and their Oaks ; our southern friends 

 sent their Magnolias, their Rhododendrons and their 

 Laurels, etc. : the Italians and Spanish brought the 



