240 CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



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 place. Its big luscious-looking cherries are to some 



extent shams, being almost all seed. Midway between 



Little Harbor and the Isthmus is a grove or forest of 



oaks, and there are cottonwoods {Populus trichocarpa), 



and mountain mahogany {Cercocarpus pomjoleses). 



The island oak (Quercus tomentella) is another rare 



tree. It attains a height of nearly sixty feet, and is 



found only at Santa Catalina and Guadalupe Island 



far to the south on the Lower Californian coast. Its 



common name is the island oak, according to Engel- 



mann. The Catalina variety is a fine tree at its best, 



round-topped and beautiful. In its neighborhood we 



shall find the port-stained trunk of the manzanita 



{Arctostaphylos diver sif olid) with willow-like leaves. 



A volume might be written on the trees and plants 



of these islands alone, yet people visit them year after 



year and leave under the impression that they are 



treeless. Going from San Clemente to Santa Cruz, 



the latter appears to be densely wooded — as it is, 



compared to the rest. Owing to the heavy and dense 



fogs, the hills are well covered. The Italian and 



Swiss owners have brought trees from Italy. The 



beautiful round- topped spruce stands at the ranch 



house, and I have sat beneath its grateful shade. Here 



are groves of eucalyptus, pines, and firs, splendid oaks 



vying with those of the mainland. The rarest tree 



at Santa Cruz is the Torrey pine, a forest of which can 



be seen at Del Mar near San Diego. Those observed 



by me at Del Mar were stunted by the wind, but a 



specimen at La Jolla was a large fine robust tree. No 



one should leave California without seeing this forest, 



according to Bridgeman, " the most local and probably 



the rarest of the pines of our region." I once spent 



