146 Life in the Open 



mores out of leaf hardly six weeks in the year ; cotton- 

 woods, willows, and the alder. A black and white live 

 oak makes splendid shade in the bottoms where there 

 is water; and down in San Diego County, in a re- 

 stricted area near Delmar, grows the rarest tree in the 

 world Torrey's pine, a dwarf species not over forty 

 feet in height. As we ascend the slopes the chaparral 

 becomes a factor; a dense growth often covering the 

 hills, the home of the mountain lion, deer, and mountain 

 quail. It is made up of several kinds of brush, at- 

 taining the dignity of trees. This and two species 

 of live-oak bushes and the Adenostoma or grease- 

 wood constitute the backbone of this foothill verdure. 

 Then comes the Heteromeles, with its masses of red 

 berries, the "holly" of the Southern California Christ- 

 mas festival ; the wild lilacs, with lavender and white 

 clusters of flowers. Then the manzanita that here is 

 rarely found on the lower slopes, though in the north 

 I have seen it on sea level. This and the madrona, 

 with several others, make up the forest of the approach 

 to the Sierra Madre, a mimic forest ten or fifteen feet 

 high, through which run quail, wildcat, and other game ; 

 a dense interlaced mass often almost impassable for man 

 or horse. One of the most serious predicaments in 

 which I ever found myself in California was when try- 

 ing to make a short cut and ride down through the 

 chaparral on a steep slope of this range. 



Following up the cartons there is a succession of 

 trees and shrubs. The little caftons and valleys are 



