196 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



degree of frost or less rainfall. So during the first 

 few years after the founding of the Missions, the 

 gardens continued unproductive to such a degree 

 that the Padres, in the quaint language of one of 

 them writing to fruitful Mexico, "were like birds 

 seeking a sad living for themselves and their In- 

 dians." Before the time of Serra's death, however, 

 in 1784, the gardens at half a dozen of the oldest 

 Missions were producing abundantly. The olive 

 and the grape, the pear, the lime, the orange and the 

 fig were being gathered on land that a few years be- 

 fore had never yielded other harvest than the lean 

 fruits of the wilderness. Even the date had been 

 planted, as is attested by the presence still of a few 

 old trees at San Diego, San Fernando and San 

 Buenaventura. The primary object, however, of 

 cultivating this tree seems not to have been to raise 

 dates, which would rarely if ever mature on the 

 California coast, 3 but the leaves. From the time of 

 Isis worship in Egypt, the leaf of the date palm has 

 been an emblem of victory, and its employment in 

 the Christian festival celebrating the Lord's tri- 

 umphal entry into Jerusalem, made it desirable for 

 the Missionaries to have the foliage at hand. They 

 might of course have made shift with other green- 



3 Hinds, the naturalist of the "Sulphur" Expedition, which was at 

 San Diego in 1839, speaks of the date palms there yielding only sour 

 fruit. 



