CALIFORNIA TREE NOVELTIES 



PART I 



By E. A. Sterling 



[The information contained in this article, and in the one to follow in August, will be most 

 desirable to the visitor, who, going to California this summer or fall, will take time to see some of the 

 natural wonders of the State, among which are the magnificent trees aad forests. Mr. Sterling tells 

 what trees may be seen along the regular tourist routes, and he knows, as he has ridden over a 

 considerable portion of the State's forested area. Editor.] 



CALIFORNIA announces its faith 

 in itself and in the nation, by 

 the simultaneous presentation 

 of two great expositions at a 

 time when the world is staging the 

 most tremendous events in history. 

 Such confidence deserves well of the 

 visitors who seek her hospitality. Yet 

 only a small part of what the Pacific 

 coast has to offer is found among the 

 artistic and commercial features so 

 wonderfully assembled at the Panama- 

 California and Panama-Pacific Exposi- 

 tions. 



California can offer unparalleled nat- 

 ural attractions which are her very 

 own, and every one interested in the 

 unique and beautiful in the way of 

 mountains and forests, will find much 

 that is fascinating and inspiring on or 

 near the established tourist routes in 

 this great out door playground of the 

 West. From the low wooded moun- 

 tains in sight of the grounds of the 

 Panama-California Exposition at San 

 Diego, northward along the Sierra 

 Madre, Sierra Nevada and coast ranges, 

 past the ocean slopes which look down 

 on the golden city by the western gate 

 to Mount Shasta and the Siskiyou 

 Mountains on the northern boundary 

 is an enormous forest region more 

 diversified in character and with more 

 wonderful trees than are found in any 

 other spot or region on earth. In kind, 

 in size, in beauty, and in abundance, 

 California forests are absolutely unex- 

 celled. 



John Muir, who knew California 

 mountains and forests as no other man 

 knew them says in his book 'The 

 Mountains of California:" 'The dis- 

 tribution of the general forest in belts is 

 readily perceived. These extend in 



768 



regular order from one extremity of the 

 range to the other; and, however dense 

 and somber they may appear in general 

 views, neither on the rocky heights nor 

 down in the leafiest hollows will you 

 find anything to remind you of the 

 dank, malarial selvas of the Amazon 

 and Orinoco, with their 'boundless 

 contiguity of shade,' the monotonous 

 uniformity of the Deodar Forests of the 

 Himalaya, the Black Forest of Europe, 

 or the dense dark woods of Douglas 

 Spruce where rolls the Oregon. The 

 giant pines, and firs, and Sequoias 

 hold their arms open to the sunlight, 

 rising above one another on the moun- 

 tain benches, marshaled in glorious 

 array, giving forth the utmost expression 

 of grand beauty with inexhaustible 

 variety and harmony. 



"The inviting openness of the Sierra 

 woods is one of their most distinguishing 

 characteristics. The trees of all the 

 species stand more or less apart in 

 groves, or in small, irregular groups, 

 enabling one to find a way nearly every- 

 where, along sunny colonnades and 

 through openings that have a smooth, 

 parklike surface, strewn with brown 

 needles and burs. Now you cross a wild 

 garden, now a meadow, now a ferny, 

 willowy stream ; and ever and anon you 

 emerge from all the groves and flowers 

 upon some granite pavement or high, 

 bare ridge commanding superb views 

 above the waving sea of evergreens 

 far and near. * * * 



* * * "Crossing the treeless plains 

 of the Sacramento and San Joaquin 

 from the west and reaching the Sierra 

 foot-hills , you enter the lower fringe of 

 the forest, composed of small oaks and 

 pines, growing so far apart that not 

 one-twentieth of the surface of the 



