354 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



by those names elsewhere. California, with a little of the 

 countrv adjacent, is a distinct botanical district, and is more 

 nearly related in vegetation to Spain than to the Mississippi 

 valley. The species of trees and plants are comparatively few 

 in number, and our forests and fields lack the variety observed 

 in rnoister temperate climes. Our valleys and low hills abound 

 with wild flowers, but nearly all bloom within a brief period 

 instead of continuing to beautify the landscape till the end of 

 summer. The forests are found only in the districts which 

 have more than the average amount of rain, such as the re- 

 gion near the ocean, north of 36, and the mountains. The 

 bareness of the hills is one of the striking features of the 

 Californian landscape. 



Most of the Sacramento and San Joaquiu Valleys, the Col- 

 orado Desert, the eastern slopes of the Coast Mountains, and 

 the Coast Range south of latitude 35, are treeless ; the Sierra 

 Nevada, and the western slopes of the Coast Range north of 

 35, have fine forests ; and in the foot hills of the Sierra 

 Nevada, and in the coast valleys, there are beautiful open 

 groves of oak-trees. The timber of the Sierra is mainly 

 spruce, pine, and fir ; that of the coast north of 37, redwood ; 

 and spruce and pine south of that latitude. 



The botany of California is remarkable for containing a 

 number of the largest and most beautiful coniferous trees in 

 the world, growing to a height of three hundred feet, and a 

 thickness of eight and ten feet in the trunk, and some of them 

 still larger. Among these gigantic glories of the vegetable 

 kingdom, are the mammoth tree, the redwood, the sugar-pine, 

 the red fir, the yellow fir, and the arbor-vitae. Other large 

 conifers contribute to the magnificence of our forests. We 

 have the laurel, the madrofta, the evergreen-oak, and the nut- 

 pine evergreen trees, with a growth resembling that of decid- 

 uous trees. Our deciduous trees are few, and of little value 

 .to the mechanic. 



J 281. Big Tree.ThQ Big Tree of California, although 



