THE TREES OF CALIFORNIA. 2x3 



dense. The instructive value of the excursion was greatly 

 enhanced by a discussion which here took place on the com- 

 parative merits and demerits of a high density of stock. Mr 

 Duff kindly accompanied the party, and gave them much 

 valuable information regarding individual trees and the planta- 

 tions as a whole. An older plantation, which had been under- 

 planted with Douglas fir, was then visited. The Douglas firs 

 presented a very healthy appearance, and well illustrated their 

 suitability as an under-crop. Several other very interesting 

 woods were visited, including a young mixed crop of Scots 

 pine and larch, where it was remarked with satisfaction that 

 the larches were likely to outgrow the disease which had 

 attacked them. 



The excursion was brought to a close at Hatton Castle, where 

 Mr and Mrs Garden Duff very kindly entertained their visitors 

 to tea. The arrangements for what proved to be a highly 

 enjoyable and instructive excursion were admirably carried out 

 by Mr R. Scott, the Hon. Secretary of the Aberdeen Branch. 



28. The Trees of California.^ 



By F. R. S. Balfour. 



Before beginning to tell you what I know of the trees 

 of California, I would like to explain briefly the geographical 

 characteristics of the country. It is, as you know, a State 

 about a thousand miles long, and nowhere over two hundred 

 miles broad. The range of the Sierra Nevada Mountains divides 

 it on its eastern frontier from the rest of the continent, and 

 parallel with them is the Coast Range extending from north to 

 south, and merging, with the Sierra Nevada in the north, into 

 the Cascade Range of Oregon and Washington ; the great 

 Mount Shasta — 14,400 feet, an extinct volcano— is the land- 

 mark on the northern boundary. The only important break in 

 the Coast Range is the Bay of San Francisco. Between these 

 two ranges lies the great central fertile belt, drained by the 

 Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, which, flowing the one 

 from the north and the other from the south, join and debouch 

 into the Bay of San Francisco. 



^ Lecture delivered, with lantern slides, to the Royal Scottish Arboricultural 

 Society, at their Annual Meeting, 5th February 1908. 



