CHAPTER XX 



GARDENS OF THE SEA 



THE Channel Islands, especially Santa Cata- 

 lina and Santa Cruz, have been treasure- 

 houses for botanists, as here are found many- 

 plants peculiar to the big mountain tops rising from 

 the sea, and many more that are rare and indigenous 

 to the islands strung along the coast. 



When the eastern country is fast in the grip of 

 winter, when the country to the north and east is 

 ravished by gales, frost, ice, and snow, the Channel 

 Islands are isles of summer, gardens of the sea. I 

 have seen in February the little tilted mesas of the 

 canon back of Avalon glowing in a golden vestment, 

 and found it dotted with yellow violets, now run out, 

 as their home is part of a modern golf links. I have 

 seen the slopes of deep canons quivering with lavender, 

 due to the island Mariposa lily (Calochortus) ; and near 

 Christmas, when the vision is filled with pictures of 

 snow and ice, the islands of Santa Catalina, San Cle- 

 mente, and others, in certain localities seem to glow 

 with a deep red, colored by masses of "holly," — not 

 a holly at all, but the attractive red berry clusters of 

 heteromeles, — that blaze over acres of chaparral on 

 the island slopes. 



No fairer picture can be imagined than Santa Cata- 

 lina or Santa Cruz in midwinter as one floats along 

 the water, whose blue defies description : then to land 



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