BY JOSEPH LAUTERER, M.D. 63 



seen millenniums. Most of them have been sacrificed to the 

 avarice as timber and only sections of the stem are to be seen in 

 the museums. 



The Wellinf/tonias in the Yosemite Valley, the specimens 

 of the Mexican cedar [Taxodium )iiucyi>n(iUi))i) on the Hill of the 

 Grasshopper, and the Japanese cypress {Cryptomeria japonica) in 

 the grove round the temples of Nikko, the " Splendour of the 

 sun," are of overwhelming beauty, whereas the specimens in our 

 Brisbane Gardens look only like gigantic Christmas trees. 



During the last 20 years, man^ plants have been naturalised 

 in Germany which I had never seen there before. Minmlus 

 muculatus, a native of South America, is not frightened by the 

 cold climate of Baden. luipatiens japonica, a very pretty touch- 

 me-not, with red flowers, borders the rivulets between Germany 

 and Switzerland. I saw it first en the Daiagawa, near Nikko, 

 and admired it much. It surprised me to find it afterwards 

 stronger than in Japan, covering a large area on the road to 

 Constanz. 



Acclimatisation of useful plants means to render them 

 capable of yielding the production desired from them in a climate 

 difl'erent to that in which they are natives. It is easier to 

 enable a plant to endure lower temperatures than inducing the 

 natives of colder regions to live in our latitudes. 



Some plants improve in a strange country under altered 

 climatic conditions. The fruit-producing power of the 



Californian soil is astonishing ; nearly all useful plants of a 

 moderate and warm sky have been acclimatised. Lemons, 

 oranges, dates, olives and grapes grow there with apples, pears, 

 apricots, peaches and cherries in abundance, and of first quality. 

 The North American persimmon [Diospyros viryiniana) yields a 

 very good native fruit. I was told in the University 

 Hospital of St. Louis, that it is found very useful in diabetes. The 

 fruit is very sweet, but no sugar goes in the water after eating 

 it. The tree is a large one with spreading branches, and may 

 be seen in our gardens. 



The small farmers can do nothing in California ; the dry 

 soil requires costly irrigation. Rain is scanty. The markets of 

 San Francisco (as well as of Saint Louis, Mo.), sell gigantic 

 apples and strawberries. There are monstrous sugar turnips 

 {Beta vulgaris) as big as a man's body, soft and succulent to the 

 innermost part. Potatoes and cabbages are wonderful. 



