IN CALIFORNIA 209 



cypress, that are among the rarest of trees. The 

 fir is the so-called Santa Lucia fir (Abies venusta 

 or bracteata) which occurs only in a restricted area 

 of one of the wildest regions of California, the Santa 

 Lucia Sierra of Monterey County. It is a striking 

 tree, branched usually to the ground and rising from 

 a broad base to the height of sixty, seventy or even 

 a hundred feet, the crown narrowing upward rather 

 rapidly and terminating in a high, slender leader 

 like a church spire a characteristic so marked as 

 to render the species distinguishable as far off as 

 the eye can reach. The cones, not the least remark- 

 able feature of the tree, bristle with long antennae- 

 like needles which are the prolonged tips of the cone 

 scales. This fir exudes an aromatic gum, which was 

 turned to account by the Franciscan Missionaries of 

 the region as fuel for their censers. For this rea- 

 son they called it drbol de incienso the incense- 

 tree ; and this fact probably led to its botanical dis- 

 covery by Dr. Thomas Coulter, who appears to have 

 been at the San Antonio Mission in the Santa Lucia 

 country in 1831, and who afterwards spread the fame 

 of the tree in Europe. Its remarkable features 

 brought other collectors from time to time, who in- 

 troduced it into cultivation abroad. Even at the 

 present day, you can hardly please a tree lover more 

 than to take him a jaunt to the haunts of this fa- 



