INTRODUCTION 



The purpose of this publication is to stimulate more widespread interest 

 in the planting of trees in California. There are thousands of miles of highway 

 in the state that should be beautified and shaded with suitable trees. Many 

 streets in our towns and cities as well as school and home grounds need trees 

 both for their beauty and shade. Californians have a wide range of trees 

 from which to choose, species coming from all parts of the world. No attempt 

 has been made to describe in the following pages all the shade and ornamental 

 trees grown in the state. The species described, however, are of sufficient 

 variety to answer most of the inquiries constantly being received regarding 

 the characteristics of trees which it is desired to plant. 



Trees are something more than green things or mere firewood. They 

 have human aspects which the Greeks well knew when they made "the forest 

 rivers garrulous with babble of gods." From the far-off days when the 

 prophetess of ancient Israel "dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah," and 

 the people came up to her for judgment, trees have played an important part 

 in the history of nations. Their significance is thus expressed by Reginald 

 Wright Kauffman: 



"Mankind has always regarded the tree as friendly and often as 

 divine. There was the mystic oak of the Druids; the sacred Bo-tree of 

 Buddah; the ash Yggdrasil of Norse mythology, whose roots were in 

 the underworld, but whose arms reached to the Asa-gods above the 

 skies. How large a part the tree has played in our own Holy Writ, 

 from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in Genesis to that Tree 

 upon which the Divine Sacrifice was consummated, I need not, surely, 

 remind you." 



In our own history we have trees that have long been cherished as living 

 memorials of great deeds, such as the Charter Oak, and the Washington Elm. 



Our forefathers did not neglect the improvement of their village and 

 home grounds, but planted trees, the stateliness of which now bears witness to 

 their foresight. New England is famous for its elm-bowered villages, and 

 New York and Ohio for their maple-shaded towns. 



