352 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA 



chiefly woodwardia and aspidiums, with only a few 

 flowering plants oxalis, trientalis, erythronium, 

 fritillaria, smilax, and other shade-lovers. But all 

 along the redwood belt there are sunny openings 

 on hill-slopes looking to the south, where the giant 

 trees stand back, and give the ground to the small 

 sunflowers and the bees. Around the lofty red 

 wood walls of these little bee-acres there is usually 

 a fringe of Chestnut Oak, Laurel, and Madrono, 

 the last of which is a surpassingly beautiful tree, 

 and a great favorite with the bees. The trunks 

 of the largest specimens are seven or eight feet 

 thick, and about fifty feet high ; the bark red and 

 chocolate colored, the leaves plain, large, and 

 glossy, like those of Magnolia grandiflora, while 

 the flowers are yellowish- white, and urn-shaped, in 

 well-proportioned panicles, from five to ten inches 

 long. When in full bloom, a single tree seems to 

 be visited at times by a whole hive of bees at once, 

 and the deep hum of such a multitude makes the 

 listener guess that more than the ordinary work of 

 honey- winning must be going on. 



How perfectly enchanting and care-obliterating 

 are these withdrawn gardens of the woods long 

 vistas opening to the sea sunshine sifting and 

 pouring upon the flowery ground in a tremulous, 

 shifting mosaic, as the light- ways in the leafy wall 

 open and close with the swaying breeze shining 

 leaves and flowers, birds and bees, mingling to 

 gether in springtime harmony, and soothing fra 

 grance exhaling from a thousand thousand foun 

 tains ! In these balmy, dissolving days, when the 

 deep heart-beats of Nature are felt thrilling rocks 



