February 28, 1907 aX 
THE FLORA OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, 
CALIFORNIA—I 
By A. A. HELLER 
In order to meet a demand for information about our local 
flora, I have decided to issue a series of papers describing in a 
general way the plants which occur about us, at first mention- 
ing only those which are found in the vicinity of Los Gatos, but 
eventually including the whole county. 
Santa Clara county should furnish a highly interesting 
flora owing to its diversified features. Although one of the 
tichest valleys in the State, the Santa Clara valley consists of 
less than half of the total area of the county, and from the bot- 
anical standpoint this is fortunate, for the highly cultivated 
orchard lands now yield comparatively few species where once 
there must have been a vast wealth of ‘forms, some of them no 
doubt extinct at the present time. The uncultivated areas are 
the places to which we must look for representatives of our 
native plants. 
The northern part of the county touches San Francisco 
bay, and furnishes a considerable area of marsh lands. 
The eastern boundary is the summit of the inner Coast 
Range overlooking the San Joaquin valley, and this large extent 
of foothill and mountains lying east of the valley has scarcely 
been explored botanically. Mt. Hamilton with an elevation of 
4209 feet, the highest mountain in this part of the State, is one 
of the features of the landscape. 
From San Jose to the southern end of the county the val- 
ley is comparatively narrow, probably not over six or seven 
miles wide in most places, for here the Mt. Hamilton range arid 
the Santa Cruz mountains draw close together. 
The western boundary is the summit of the Santa Cruz 
mountains, the highest peaks of which either lie partly in or 
near the county limits. 
