IN CALIFORNIA 13 



early growth had the appearance of having been 

 cleared away and had left the stately lords of the 

 forest in complete possession of the soil, which was 

 covered with luxuriant herbage and beautifully di- 

 versified with pleasing eminences and valleys ; which 

 with the range of lofty mountains that bounded the 

 prospect, required only to be adorned with the neat 

 habitations of an industrious people to produce a 

 scene not inferior to the most studied effects of taste 

 in the disposal of grounds." Vancouver was look- 

 ing upon what was a very common sight throughout 

 a large part of California in primitive times, and a 

 sort of landscape that is by no means yet cultivated 

 out of existence natural open groves of the stately 

 coast live-oak trees which have from the first been 

 the delight of all travelers in the State. Often herds 

 of grazing horses and cattle, and of wild deer, helped 

 the likeness to the parks of the Old World nobility. 



The Man of Grass, Old Curious and Fremont 



It was not until 1831 that any adequate study of 

 California plants upon their native heath was made 

 by scientific collectors. Up to that time the few 

 visiting naturalists had confined their explora- 

 tions to places near the coast, and as the time of 

 their stay was usually short, and, with curious un- 

 animity, almost always in the autumn, when plant 



