FLORICULTURE OF SAN FRANCISCO PAST AND PRESENT. 123 



window, itself a picture of tropical plant life, appeared to separate, 

 yet join together, the living plants and the men and women who died 

 long ago. Towering high above the beds of lovely flowers was the 

 figure of Washington. Long after all else had been removed, that silent 

 monument stood guard above the ground where young and old alike 

 learned many a lesson among the plants. 



San Francisco, like Borne, is a "City of Hills." Although the- 

 earth from some of these hills assisted in crowding the waters of the bay 

 eastward, hills enough remain to form a picturesque landscape. On 

 Telegraph, Eincon, and Eussian Hills, at an early date, the people 

 built their homes. The gardens and surroundings once bore eloquent 

 testimony to the taste of the residents. N"ow, the grime and smoke 

 and noise of business activity in their vicinity, have driven the resi- 

 dence portion of the town west and south. 



The "City of the Dead" covers several of its western hills, and 

 from another our soldiers guard the Golden Gate. Tbore is a strikin;; 

 resemblance between the ."Twin Peaks." Although attired alike in 

 plain green, without fringe, frills, or other trimmings, they have for 

 ages held their heads above their neighbors. From their summits, as 

 well as from the summit of Bernal, the scene is grand and imposing. 



On still another hill is a beautiful garden where cultivated plants 

 vie with each other in color and form. There are statues on the lawns, 

 under the trees, and on the bluffs overlooking the sea. The poor man, 

 with little cost, may here learn many lessons from the flowers while 

 he is enjoying the surroundings. The roar of the waves, the barking 

 of the seals, these alone remind him of the time when he came in 

 through the Golden Gate. All else has changed. The old cliff house 

 came, and, like some of his dreams, disappeared in smoke. In its 

 place there is now an imposing structtire, daring the waves to tear it 

 from its foundation. 



In the "Horticulturist" of November, 1872, Dr. Carr again says: 

 "Forests are the mothers of rivers, the great regulators of the distrilm-. 

 tion of moisture; the economic questions involved in their preservation 

 involve those of climate and population. The soil in many places has 

 been made by the trees which grow upon it, and the permanent agri- 

 cultural prosperity of a country must depend upon the proportion of 

 its territory kept entirely in forests, or equivalent plantations." 



To some extent we see this illustrated in the "Sutro Forest," another 

 1 hill, or company of hills, of our city. One need go only a few yards into 

 this forest to convince himself that trees produce moisture. Under the 

 cypress, eucalyptus, and pine trees, of man's planting, a thick bed of 

 decaying foliage has formed. In it nature has planted a fern garden. 

 The "leaves of the eucalyptus trees hang vertically, allowing the moisture 



