194 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



May, 



THE SILVER FIR GROWING AMONG SANDSTONE ROCKS NEAR UPPER 

 CARMEL RIVER, CALIFORNIA. 



ing not 



more than 200 trees, scattered 

 along the moist bottoms of canyons, usu- 

 ally at an elevation of about 3,000 feet, 

 on both slopes of the outer western ridge 

 of the Santa Lucia Mountains of Mon- 

 terey County." 



Sargent then mentions four can3^ons 

 near the Pacific, in the southern part of 

 the county, where the species is known 

 to occur. My own knowledge of it in 

 this part of the county corresponds sub- 

 stantially with his record. In other 

 words, it was supposed by recent bot- 

 anists to occur only at these four or five 

 stations, about five miles from the ocean, 

 over a region less than 25 miles in length. 

 In this region too, it will be observed, 

 that it was reported only from can5'ons. 



From the explorations of the past year, 

 in the much more extensive, rugged, and 



elevated masses of 

 the northern Santa 

 Lucias, it is found 

 that its range may be 

 extended for over 50 

 miles from north to 

 south ; that it occurs 

 at least 1 8 miles east- 

 ward from the ocean; 

 that its favorite hab- 

 itat is crag, rocky 

 ridge, and slope, al- 

 though it occurs in 

 canyons and along 

 streams. Instead of 

 growing at about 

 3,000 feet elevation, 

 it ranges in this re- 

 gion, its true home, 

 from 1,500 to over 

 5,000 feet above the 

 sea. 



Although not per- 

 tinent to this paper, 

 I will refer to the 

 fact, to be treated 

 more f ulh' elsewhere, 

 that this extension of 

 the range is in part a 

 rediscovery of the lo- 

 cality of the species 

 mentioned b}^ Lobb 

 in 1853, who refers to 

 it as " growing on 

 the highest peaks and 

 most exposed places, 

 to all appearances is 

 vegetation." 



in slate which 

 incapable of supporting 

 Sargent, in commenting on the above, 

 says: "Since lyobb's time, fire has 

 probably destroyed all the trees except 

 those which were protected by moisture 

 in the bottoms of the deepest canyons. ' ' 

 As a matter of fact, although fire has 

 ravaged these regions with unparal- 

 leled fury, the truer explanation of 

 Lobb's puzzling passage would suggest 

 that lyobb never saw the trees which 

 modern botanists believed to be the only 

 ones in existence ; and strange as it may 

 seem, the latter did not know of the 

 trees found by the former. Coulter, 

 Lobb, and Douglas all entered these 

 mountains from Monterey, which lies 

 to the north of them, and undoubtedly 

 saw the northwest portions of the area 



