598 FOREST KESOUECES OF CALIFORNIA. 



ledonons trees, both in size and numbers, and the heavy forests are 

 mostly limited to the sea-coasts and mountain-sides, and he observes 

 that diiiereut mountaiu-ranges are covered with vegetation that ex- 

 hibits marked differences when compared one with another. 



The areas between and eastward of the coast-ranges and Sierra Nevada have each 

 a flora somewhat peculiar to themselves. 



Coafit Mountains, between San Francisco and the mouth of the Columbia. — These were 

 covered, when observed by him in 1854-'G5, with a continuous forest, denser toward the 

 north. Immediately north of San Francisco they were almost exclusively of redwood 

 (Sequoia sempervirens), which was limited to the valleys, especially such as opened 

 toward the coast. Farther north the trees became more numerous, and the sugar and 

 yellow pines (P. Lambertiana and P.j)onderosa) were found. Near Crescent City these 

 trees together formed a maguiticent forest, the redwoods and sugar-pines growing to 

 about equal dimensions, being not uncommonly 12 to 15 feet in diameter and 300 feet 

 high. 



Near the line of 42° a change was observed, growing if anything more dense, and 

 the redwood disappearing and being succeeded by the Western white cedar (T/(i//a 

 gigantea), Douglas and Menzies's spruces, which formed dense and almost impenetrable 

 forests from Port Orford to the Columbia. The Douglas spruce here reached its great- 

 est size, fully equaling the redwood and sugar-pine. In the valleys of the Umpqua 

 and other rivers flowing into the ocean the Qucrcus Garreijana grows alone or in groups, 

 sometimes 2 to 3 feet in diameter, with a low, spreading top. In the transverse chains 

 running back from the coast to Mount Pitt and Mount Shasta, the Finns Lambertiana, 

 P. jjonderosa, P. contorta, Picea grandis, and perhaps P. amabilis, reached down nearly 

 to the shore. 



Sacramento Valley. — Excessive moisture in winter and spring, and summer droughts, 

 characterize this region. The prevailing surface is prairie, with timber in narrow 

 belts along the streams, varying in width and density according to the size of the 

 streams and the extent of their influence upon the soil or air. Of trees growing iu 

 this region he mentioned the Qucrcus agrifolia and California white oak {Q. Hindsii), 

 the nut-pine (P. Sabiniana), a tree highly characteristic of the flora of the interior, 

 and generally distributed in the Coast Mountains back from the ocean. The man- 

 zanita (Acroiostaphylos glauca), Platanus racemosa, Fraxinus Oregona, Populus monili- 

 fera, and a few willows, alders, and vines make up the rest. 



Sierra Nevada. — These mountains, with their continuation— the Cascade Range of 

 Oregon — rising at many points high above the line of perpetual snows, give an alpine 

 character to some of the vegetation, and, with the progressive changes downward, 

 quite a variety of species. The Douglas spruce, the western balsam-fir, and some 

 other trees which form a large part of the forests on the Columbia, extend at a higher 

 elevation down to Mexico. The western slope, receiving rains from the Pacific, was 

 clothed with a dense forest of conifers, including, with the exception of redwood, all 

 those gigantic species that characterize the botany of western North America. On the 

 ■west slope of the Sierra Nevada also occurs the Sequoia gigantea, or " mammoth tree." 

 The greater part of the forests were made up of the yellow pine {P. ponderosa), sugar- 

 pine (P. Lambertiana), western balsam-fir {Picea grandis), and incense-cedar (Libocedrus 

 decurrens), -which formed the greater part of this slope as far south as the latitude of 

 San Francisco. The yew (Taxus brevifolia), and two species of cypress (C. Nutkatensia 

 and C. Lawsoniana) were occasionally met with. Among the foot-hills, at a lower level, 

 the nut-pine mingled with the oaks, reaching up to the pine forests above, but scarcely 

 forming a part of them. The Quercus fulvescens, Q. densiflora, and Q. Kelloggi also 

 occurred in the same zone, but not in considerable numbers. 



Eegion east of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains. — There is here great uniform- 

 ity in geological formation as well as iu vegetable growth; the yellow pine {P. pon- 

 dei-osa) forming a continuous forest, a day's ride scarcelyshowing a dozen species of 

 plants. 



The Klamath Lairs, and along the Klamath River, in Oregon, where more rain falls, 

 we have thickets of small trees, but the amount of timber is not large. The cotton- 

 wood and willows were found along water-courses, and yellow pine and western cedar 

 on the hills. On the banks of the Klamath dense forests of the Pinus contorta, of small 

 trees, were noticed. 



Cascade Mountains. — These bear, besides the greater part of the species found on the 

 Sierra Nevadas, some that do not extend into California. The western larch (Larix 

 occidentalis) and the Abies TViUiamsonii are of this class. 



Among the species mentioned in the local botany of this region, were the larch 

 and several of the poplars (Populus tremuJoides, P. m'onUifera, and P. angustifoUa). A 

 few hundred feet up the mountain-side the yellow pine, joined by the sugar-pine 

 (Finns contorta), western balsam-fir and Douglas spruce, together formed a thick 

 forest. There were also seen some few trees of the Thuja occidentalis and large-leaf 

 maple (Acer macrophyllum). A little higher was the Pinus monticola of Douglas, and 



