272 LUTHER BURBANK 



in contour, and its chief slopes face the east. 

 The soil is sandy, no doubt part of one of many 

 great sand dunes piled up by the waves of the 

 Pacific Ocean and the winds in past ages. 



On this place there is a variety of soils and of 

 degrees of moisture. Some parts of the land are 

 so moist that the water seeps up to the surface 

 throughout the season, and the remainder is so 

 loose and friable that moisture may be found all 

 through the summer even six months after any 

 rain has fallen upon it. 



Native Plants 



At the time the place was purchased about 

 two-thirds of it was covered with white and tan 

 oaks, the native Douglas spruce, manzanita, cas- 

 cara sagrada, hazel, and madrona, while beneath 

 the trees grew honeysuckles, brodiaeas, calochor- 

 tus, cjTioglossum, wild peas, fritillarias, orchids, 

 sisyrinchiums — yellow and blue — and numerous 

 other wild plants and shrubs. 



During the first few years following the clear- 

 ing away of this forest many species of clover 

 wholly new to me made their appearance, 

 twenty species or more. There was also an 

 abundance of alfilaria — Erodmm moschatum — 

 a Chilean plant, belonging to the geranium 

 family. This and the clovers growing in the 



