PREFACE 



In preparing the following pages (which the 

 scientific student, if he deigns to dip into them at 

 all, will probably think sadly trivial at times), the 

 author has by no means intended to cover the en- 

 tire field of California plant life. Bather has he 

 sought merely to touch in an informal sort of way 

 upon certain characteristic features that enlist the 

 interest of those travelers to whom the State's won- 

 derful floral and arboreal life, indigenous and ex- 

 otic, makes any appeal at all. 



In doing this, the author has tried to revive as 

 vividly as may be, the memory of his own delight 

 and inquisitiveness when, twelve years ago, his eyes 

 first beheld the gardens wild and cultivated of the 

 State which, of all our Commonwealths, is to Flora 

 the most hospitable and by her the most favored; 

 and to set down the answer as well as he can to 

 many questions which naturally arose in his mind 

 then and which are on the lips of many tourists and 

 residents alike, to-day. 



If the subjects seem at times to be treated some- 



