ORNAMENTAL TREES OF CALIFORNIA. 273 



liowever, wc do not regard as conclusive, as some experiments 

 may yet be successful. 



The ornamental trees and i»lants of California are unlike 

 those which adorn our streets and gardens, and we were at once 

 struck with their singular appearance. Instead of the elms, 

 maples and chestnuts, which prevail at the East, we saw the' 

 Cape of Good Hope, Mexican and some other semi-tropical trees 

 and plants. These are everywhere planted as common, and 

 they grow as easily as willows do with us. So rapid is their 

 development that we saw an Australian Eucalyptus tree which 

 was fifty feet in height, five feet in circumference of trunk, and 

 only six years old ; and a Pinus Insignis six years old, forty feet 

 high. We also saw fuchsias (ladies' ear-drop) ten feet liigh, 

 with heads of four to six feet broad ; beds of scarlet geranium 

 of immense size and ten feet high, and in many instances 

 trained to reach the second story windows of the house ; in one 

 garden, a fuchsia hedge of eight feet in height with stems as 

 large as a man's arm ; such tender trees and plants as we grow 

 under glass are here found in open ground for ornament. 



The collector of the port of San Francisco, Mr. Phelps, very 

 kindly invited us to visit the forts, islands and other objects of 

 interest in the harbor. On this delightful excursion we were 

 honored with the company of His Excellency Governor Haight 

 and a large party of military and naval gentlemen, with their 

 ladies and a full band of music. At Black Point, General Ord's 

 quarters, there was a glowing mass of scarlet geraniums, full 

 ten feet high, noticeable far out in the bay ; tree mallows and 

 fuchsias of enormous size. But what especially interested our 

 party was the fact of partaking of refreshments from the very 

 table on which the late General Robert E. Lee signed the sur- 

 render of the Southern army. At Fort Alcatraz we saw a trellis 

 of ivy-leaved geranium six feet high ; a mass of flowers form- 

 ing a division fence ; heliotropes and fuchsias, seeming more 

 like trees than green-house plants. At xVngel Island we noticed 

 a hedge of rose geranium fifty feet long and nine feet in height; 

 and this same plant grown as standards, with clean stems and 

 large heads, at least five feet high and four broad. Angel 

 Island is a charming place, and if angels were ever to seek a 

 residence on earth, no spot is more suitable than Angel Island. 

 I know not what flowers were grown in Eden, but of this I feel 



35 



