00 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



migrants into the State after the gold discoveries in 

 1848, there was an enormous demand for foodstuffs, 

 and the forgotten Mission gardens came to memory 

 again. Investigation showed that some of the 

 hardier sorts of plants notably the pear, the olive 

 and the grape were still alive about the old estab- 

 lishments, and by pruning, cultivating and irrigat- 

 ing, could be made to yield anew, and to supply cut- 

 tings for propagation. The first fruit offered to 

 the Argonauts in the markets of San Francisco 

 came, it is said, from the furbished-up old pear trees 

 and grape vines of the Bay Missions, Santa Clara 

 and San Jose. 



Of all the trees of the Fathers' setting out remain- 

 ing to-day, the best known are perhaps a few date 

 palms and certain olives and pears notably some 

 ancient olives at San Diego, and the century-old 

 pears at Carmel and San Juan Bautista, which are 

 still in bearing. I have an especial fondness, 

 though, for certain shaggy, thorny, little trees that 

 one may still run across, bridging the gulf of time to 

 the Padres' days, at the edge of the old olive yard 

 at Mission San Fernando, though they are in im- 

 minent peril of being uprooted in the spread of what 

 the real estate dealers call "improvement." They 

 bear little balls of deep yellow bloom of such a pene- 

 trating and delicious perfume, as I know in no other 



