IN CALIFORNIA 31 



The tree is dioecious that is, it bears staminate and 

 pistillate blossoms on different trees ; which accounts 

 for a fact puzzling to the non-botanical, namely, that 

 not all the trees are berry bearing. In country and 

 in town alike, the pepper lines miles of waysides and 

 in many cases the crowns meet overhead, so as to 

 form long tunnels of greenery, somewhat in the way 

 that old elms do in New England streets. People 

 who are not satisfied short of perfection, are dis- 

 posed to grumble at the pepper tree because of a 

 disposition to drop its leaflets too freely in wet 

 weather, so contributing rather markedly to the 

 dirtiness and slipperiness of sidewalks. A more 

 serious charge is hospitality to certain scale insects, 

 which are the special bane of the citrus fruit in- 

 dustry in California. The control of scale, how- 

 ever, is now pretty well understood in the State, and 

 systematic spraying, which in many California dis- 

 tricts is seen to by the local governmental authori- 

 ties, removes to a great extent this objection to one 

 of the most beautiful and popular of introduced 

 shade trees. 



Widespread as the cultivation of the pepper tree 

 is in California, no one seems to know when and 

 how it became established there. The memory of 

 the oldest inhabitant is not long enough to recall its 

 introduction, for the tree was there before he came, 



