GARDENS OF THE SEA 235 



the brilliant red of painter's brush, or the mimulus. 

 A beautiful shrub is the white lilac (Ceanothus ctinea- 

 tus), and more beautiful still, the lavender lilac (C. 

 arboreus). The latter is, I believe, according to Brit- 

 ton, confined to the islands. Where this lilac is at 

 its best the color scheme seems to shimmer in the 

 light, to pervade everything. The bush, really a tree, 

 is about twenty-four feet high. It is known also as 

 the tree myrtle. The flowers appear in dense clusters 

 of light blue from January to April; the leaves are 

 dark green, velvety, and white on the under surface. 



I think one of the most beautiful visions I have 

 ever seen in Southern California was a canon in San 

 Diego County, not far from Pala, in fact the caiion 

 this side of Pala and Mount Paloma. I entered it 

 with Mr. and Mrs. Robert Burdette on a motor-car 

 trip. The canon was a solid mass of deep brilliant 

 blue. At first I thought it haze, but it was the wild 

 lilac of California, a near kinsman to the Catalina 

 lilac, peculiar to California {Ceanothus thyrsijiorus). 

 In wandering over the island one sees llanos where 

 nothing particular seems to grow, then, as about the 

 base and radiating caiions of Orizaba, there are dense 

 thickets; indeed I once took a horseback ride with 

 Mr. Hancock Banning from Empire Landing to Ava- 

 lon on the coast, and we had a most difficult time in 

 forcing our way through the lilac, greasewood, and 

 other brush. 



No one has given more careful study to the plants 

 and other features of Santa Catalina than Mrs. Blanche 

 Trask, the island botanist, author, and poet, who 

 resides at Avalon, and who probably knows the real 

 heart of this island better than any one. One of the 



