HISTORICAL NOTES OF SOME CALIFORNIAN TREES. 43 



dampened by the dew, frost or moisture of the preceding 



night. 



5. In case of a sudden shower the driers can be brought 



in and placed under shelter very quickly. 



6. The wind can do them no harm; they need no weights, 

 for being strung on the cords they cannot blow away. In 

 fact, the more wind the better. 



As to the disadvantages of this system, compared with the 



other, I have yet to discover them. 



HISTOEICAL NOTES ON SOME CALIFORNIAN 



TEEES.— L 



By Edwaed L. Greene. 



There are not many countries whose vegetation has elic- 

 ited a keener interest than that of California; and this has 

 been true ever since our native plants and trees began to be 

 made known to botanists. But the very earliest chapters in 

 our botany and dendrology were written late. Fifty years 

 ago there was no country more remote than California from 

 the world's great centers of civilization and seats of learning. 

 It lay farther off from the lines of ocean travel and was more 

 inaccessible than the most distant islands and continents of 

 the southern hemisphere. A century ago, respectable vol- 

 umes had been written upon the plants of southern Africa, 

 the East Indies, Japan, China, South America and Australia, 

 while as yet the western coast of North America was, botani- 

 cally and zoologically, almost a ierra incognita. Even a 

 half-century ago more was known of Australian than Calif or- 

 nian botany. Eorster's Prodromus, published in 1776, 

 contained more about Australian plants than could have been 

 gathered from all the libraries of the world in relation to 

 those of California, as late as 1826. 



Indeed, the very earliest paper which dealt with Califor- 

 nian botany, exclusively, seems to have been published in 



