THE AWAKENING OF THE TREES 



and winter snows. The flowers provide so much honey 

 that humming birds are glad to come with the bees. The 

 stamens are like little pepper boxes, and the guests must 

 strike the handles and shake out the pollen. The madrone, 

 which is larger than the manzanita, has quite as wonderful 

 flowers. 



There are many other interesting mountain shrubs that 

 help make up what we call chaparral. In summer time the 

 wild mahogany has little fruits with silky, silver-gray 

 plumes, and the greasewood fairly whitens the mountain 

 slopes with its plume-like flower clusters. The wild cherries 

 bloom earlier ; some of them have very beautiful evergreen 

 leaves. 



Higher up in the mountains in Southern California, but 

 nearer the valleys and coasts in the northern part of the 

 state, are the majestic cone-bearing trees ; the cypresses, 

 redwoods, the big trees, firs and pines, trees that have few 

 equals in the wide world. John Muir, who knows and 

 loves California mountains so well, has written much about 

 these trees, and they have other friends who write and 

 speak eloquently about them, and who are making great 

 efforts to preserve our forests. But after all, their beauty 

 and grandeur cannot be expressed in books, and very for- 

 tunate indeed are the California boys and girls who can go 

 to the mountains themselves, and learn to know the trees 

 at first hand. 



109 



