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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT STATION. 



Temperature. The spring of 1898 was also unusually trying in the 

 matter of temperature. Complaints of the unusual coldness of the 

 season were general in the neighborhood. Truck- farms on the low 

 lands south of Santa Monica suffered heavily. Even those in the so- 

 called frostless belt of the foothills did not escape unscathed. Heliotropes, 

 cannas, the choicer roses, and other tender garden plants, which ordi- 

 narily winter perfectly at Santa Monica, were this year cut down by the 

 frost in many cases, and the leaves of Eucalyptus robusta and E. globulus 

 (blue gum) were quite badly frosted in the town. 



The accompanying table gives the temperature at the Forestry Station 

 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1898, compiled monthly from the 

 continuous, automatic record of a thermograph kept on the middle 

 mesa of the station tract, where the main plantations are located: 



MONTHLY SUMMARY OF TEMPERATURE. 



Effects of Frost. It will be noticed that only once did the ther- 

 mometer fall below the freezing point. In fact, this middle mesa, where 

 the observations were made, enjoys an exceptional immunity from 

 frosts, due evidently to its intermediate position in the canon or bar- 

 ranca, midway between the higher mesa level of the surrounding plains 

 and the lower level of the canon bottom. Even here, however, this 

 year the tender young growth of the scarlet passion-flower ( Tacsonia 

 manicata) was touched by frost. New shoots of Phytolacca dioica also 

 were frosted, but no other damage was done to trees and shrubs. 



On the colder creek level, where the nursery is located for convenience 

 to water, the young shoots and in many cases the swelling buds of 

 mulberry cuttings were killed. Japanese willows (Salix Japonica and 

 S. Sieboldii) were slightly damaged ; native and Eastern willows 

 remained uninjured. Foliage of the rubber tree (Ficus elastica) was 

 frosted. A large Jacaranda mimosssfolia lost two years' growth of wood ; 

 the new growth of a young umbrella tree (Melia Azedarach) was killed 

 back; while a fine hedge of Pittosporum undulatum looked for a time as 

 though flames had swept over it. 



Comparison of Temperatures. As with the rainfall, so in the matter 

 of temperature a comparison has been drawn between Santa Monica, 



