406 



lections there made, a description was drawn up dedicating this well marked 

 new species to Dr. John Torrey, an honored friend and instructor of both 

 Dr. LeConte and the writer. 



Of the few specimens then collected a single cone and bunch was sent 

 to Dr. Torrey, to be figured for the Mexican boundary report (Vol. 2, p. 10, 

 pi. 58-59). While there it fell under the notice of some inquisitive botan- 

 ist, who extracted some of the loose seeds, which were planted, but by some 

 inadvertance were mixed with a 3-leared species. When growing, the two 

 different kinds became confounded and it was inferred that the present 

 writer was mistaken in regarding this species as 5-leaved. 



Prof. Parlatore, the elaborator of Coniferae in DC Prodromus added to 

 this confusion by ignoring the name first proposed and substituting that of 

 Pinus lophosperma, but fortunately the earlier publication of the Mexican 

 boundary survey, with an accurate figure, permanently fixed the name of 

 Pinus Torreyana, Parry, thus commemorating one of our most honored 

 American botanists by association with a tree peculiar to the Pacific coast 

 in a region which has been so often enriched by his early botanical labors 

 as a collaborator. 



Subsequently collectors have frequently visited this locality, bearing 

 away to the remotest portions of the world seed of this pine, which, so far 

 as is known, is confined to a coast line of not more than four miles, lying 

 between San Dieguito and about a mile below Soledad, and extending 

 scarcely a mile inland. [Since this time it has been found on Santa Rosa 

 Island by T. S. Brandegee.] 



The bulk of the tree growth is here mainly confined to a series of high 

 broken cliffs and deeply indented ravines on the 1 bold headlines overlooking 

 the sea south of Soledad valley and within the corporate limits of the town 

 of San Diego. Here, within a radius of not more than half a mile, this sin- 

 gular species may be seen to the best advantage clinging to the face of the 

 crumbling yellowish sandstone or shooting up in more graceful forms its 

 scant foliage in the shelter of the deep ravines, bathed with frequent sea 

 fog. One of the finest specimens seen reaches a height of nearly fifty feet, 

 and shows a trunk eighteen inches in diameter at base. 



Thirty years after this first discovery, in the fall of 1880, the writer 

 visited this locality for the second time, accompanied by the well known 

 botanist, Dr. George Engelmann of St. Louis. At that time more complete 

 examinations were made and sections of a trunk over one foot in diameter 

 were procured and sent to the Forest Commission of the Tenth United States 

 Census. 



Only a short time since the writer again visited the locality, aided by 

 the liberality of the California Southern Railroad Company, whose track 

 makes this fine resort easily accessible by barely an hour's travel from San 

 Diego. Here, seeking shelter from the fervid rays of a February sun under 

 the scant shade of this decrepit forest, listening to the sullen dash of the 

 Pacific waves against the bold shores, among other thoughts suggsted by 

 the inspiring scene and its past associations, one floats uppermost like drift- 

 ing seaweed and finds a fitting expression here. Why should not San Diego, 

 within whose corporate limits this straggling remnant of a past age finds a 

 last lingering resting place, secure from extermination this remarkable and 

 unique Pacific coast production, so singularly confined within its boundaries, 

 dedicating this spot of ground forever to the cause of scientific instruction 

 and recreation? Where wiser generations than ours may sit beneath its 

 ampler shade and listening to the same musical waves thank us for spar- 

 ing "that tree." 



[It may be well to here add that the supervisors of San Diego County 

 passed an ordinance designed to protect this tree from vandalism, as a result 

 of action taken by the society of natural history. Unfortunately the bulk 

 of the trees are growing on private property, whose owner is reported to 



