CALIFORNIA TREE NOVELTIES 



855 



pression still largely prevails in the public mind. Mr. 

 H. A. Greene, president of the Monterey Tree Growing 

 Club, has an interesting explanation of how the belief 

 originated. Says he: "Some years ago, a man named 

 Aleck Early was driving for the 

 Hotel Del Monte and making 

 himself remembered for his wit 

 by people from all parts of the 

 world. Many of his stories told 

 to wondering tourists were pre- 

 faced by 'When me and Char- 

 ley .' This was a reference to 

 Charles Crocker, one of the 'Big 

 Four' who developed the Pacific 

 Railroad system. Aleck had 

 been an old stage-driver and, 

 for a time, was in the employ of 

 Crocker and, having become too 

 old to continue in such employ- 

 ment, he was sent to Hotel Del 

 Monte by Crocker, who was the 

 real sponsor for the famous 

 hostelry, to be given a berth. As 

 driver for the hotel's livery 

 stable, Aleck spent his happiest 

 days entertaining tourists with 

 his wonderfully told tales, and 

 he became so popular with visi- 

 tors that often when people 

 wired to reserve rooms they 

 would also reserve the great 

 story teller as their driver about 

 the Monterey peninsula. 



"Aleck Early's favorite story 

 was evoked when his guests 

 were driven into the weird 

 presence of the ancient cypresses 

 at Point Cypress on the world- 

 famous Seventeen-Mile Drive. 

 This was the tale of a highly 

 civilized race of people who 

 came to this vicinity thousands 

 of years ago and builded a mag- 

 nificent city with matchless 

 temples of worship. Pointing to 



a large sand-dune he would explain that a partial ex- 

 ploration had revealed immense columns and capitals, 

 strangely but beautifully carved, prostrate under the 

 sands. This story, told in very ungrammatical sentences 

 yet with originality of wording and a convincing man- 

 ner, ended with a recital of the extinction of the 

 colonists by hordes of cannibals. At its conclusion, Aleck 

 would wave his whip toward the ancient cypress trees 

 still growing in the vicinity of the 'buried city' and de- 

 clare that they had been planted, about 0,000 years ago, 

 from .seed of the Cedar of Lebanon, brought across the 

 sea from Syria. 



"It was a ridiculous story, but the part about the tree.s 



it seems impossible to destroy. Writers persist in re- 

 ferring to this wonderful grove of prehistoric trees so 

 much more wonderful than trees of history as being of 

 the same species as the sacred cedars. The Monterey- 



MAR(;iX OI' RIvDWOOD FOREST 



This is in Big Basin, Santa Cruz County, Cal. The tree behind the buggy is 7 feet in diameter and 



860 feet in height. 



cypress is no more a true cedar than it is an oak. It is 

 probably the parent of all the cypresses and is extinct 

 save on the extremities of Point Cypress and Point 

 Lobos, near Monterey. The tree was discovered by La 

 Perouse in ]78(), but did not receive its name until 1846 

 when Hardweg rediscovered it and named it Cupressus 

 Macrocarpa, meaning 'large fruited cypress.' " 



Another tree confined to the immediate vicinity of 

 Monterey is the Monterey pine, which is unique because 

 of its isolated sea-coast habitude. Where growing in 

 thick groups somewhat protected, it has tall, clean trunks, 

 with an open, rather long and large branched crown. 

 The older trees are flattened at the top, and where e.x- 



