77 
THE VEGETATION OF THE SUMMIT OF 
MOUNT HAMILTON. 
By Epwarp L. GREENE. 
A number of years ago, even before the Lick Observatory 
had been completed, Professor Holden, at that time President 
of the University, expressed to me his desire that, at the 
earliest convenient time, a botanical survey of Mount Hamil- 
ton should be made, and a catalogue of its vegetation 
published. . 
From two different points of view, statistics of the spon- 
taneous vegetation of this locality would both be interesting 
at the time of their publication, and become more so with 
succeeding years, and the changes incident to the continued 
occupation of the summit by men and domestic animals. 
In western California, at least in the middle sections of the 
State, the original vegetation, free from admixture of foreign 
elements, can not be found elsewhere but in the midst of the 
few remaining unbroken tracts of seaboard forest, and on the 
summits of our higher coast mountains. The mountain tops 
are the last places to be reclaimed by man from their natural 
condition, and consequently are the last places to be invaded 
by those Old World field and wayside and garden weeds 
which everywhere closely attend the steps of the farmer and 
horticulturist. One finds the mountain summits tenanted 
almost solely by their own native plants, long after the 
valleys and the cultivated lower slopes have had theirs either 
mixed up with, or more or less nearly exterminated by, the 
more hardy and aggressive alien growths. It was therefore 
in Director Holden’s mind that our researches upon the 
mountain vegetation should have been made at the first 
occupancy of the summit by the astronomers, thus presumably 
in advance of the arrival of any plant immigrants. It could 
not then be done; for none unacquainted with California 
botany could take even the preliminary steps; and a pressure 
Eryrura. Vol. I, No. 4 [1 April, 1893]. 
