HISTORICAL NOTES OF SOME CALIFORNIAN TREES. 47 



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"holm" by tlie translator verifies his faithfulness to the orig- 

 inal Spanish; for in that language also they had and still 

 have in use two different wor^s in place of the modern 

 English word oak. The Spanish call the deciduous trees 

 with ample and unarmed foliage Roble; while the evergreen 

 sort/with smaller prickly-edged leaves they call Encina; 

 and the geographical name, Euciuada, which still designates 

 the shore of Todos Santos Bay in Lower California, not only 

 seems to mark the southern limit of our Live Oak's distribu- 

 tion, but was doubtless applied to that shore by the early 

 Spanish explorers in allusion to the fact that, in their voyages 

 from the Mexican coast northward, they there first detected 

 this kind of tree of which the Spanish name is Encina. 



So then, the name encina, or holm, is virtually almost a 

 botanical diagnosis of our Quercus agrifolia; and wherever, 

 in early records of this coast, mention is made of encina, or 

 its English equivalent, holm, the identification of our com- 

 monest, and only seaboard species of evergreen oak, is certain. 



Of the more genuine oaks -trees of White Oak series, with 

 deciduous foliage and light-colored wood-California presents 

 a considerable list of species; and the largest and most con- 

 spicuous of these, obtained mention with writers botanical 

 and general, at as early a date as did the Live Oak. 

 Although in its habitat it is mostly confined to the valleys 



Hsenl 



Monterey 



Nee 



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lohcda, in the year 1801. ^ , 



Yancouver also, in 1792, observed with admiration an abun- 

 dant growth of this tree in the Santa Clara Yalley. I cannot 

 do better than repeat his observations. They were made 



Mission 



company with the Spanish commandant of San Francisco 

 and some priests of the mission, a hundred years ago. 



At a point about midway between the two missions, pro- 

 ceeding southward, he says: "We entered a country Ilittle 

 expected to find in these regions. For about twenty miles it 



