170 MY LIFE [Chap. XXXI] 



gigantea, the foliage being more like that of our yew. The 

 largest tree is forty-seven feet round at six feet from the 

 ground (sixty feet at the base), and only a few feet less than 

 three hundred feet high. The forests in which they grow 

 are not, however, either so picturesque or so full of other fine 

 trees, shrubs, and flowers as are those of the Sierra Nevada. 



While at Santa Cruz for a day, both going and returning, 

 I saw something of the luxuriance of Californian gardens. 

 The common scarlet geranium grew into large bushes, forming 

 clumps six or eight feet high, a mass of dazzling colour, and 

 in the small back garden of a lady we visited was a plant of 

 Tacsonia van Volxemi, which grew all over the house, and 

 had sent branches out to an apple tree some yards away, and 

 covered it completely with its foliage and hundreds of its 

 drooping crimson flowers. On the sand of the sea-beach 

 were masses of calandrinia a yard across, covered with their 

 gorgeous blossoms, which seemed to luxuriate in the intense 

 heat and sun-glare. 



Returning to Stockton for a week, I had the opportunity 

 of witnessing a Fourth of July celebration. There was a great 

 procession of all the trades and professions, firemen, army 

 corps, volunteers, officials, etc., to the town hall. A school- 

 boy read the Declaration of Independence, and then the 

 " Oration " was delivered. It was pretty good in substance, 

 but declaimed with outrageous vehemence and gesture. Then 

 a patriotic poem was recited by a lady, but two crying infants 

 and exploding crackers outside much interfered with the effect. 

 All the rest of the day there were crackers all over the town, 

 and in the evening another procession of animals, clowns, etc., 

 crowds of people, carriages and buggies, crackers and fire- 

 works — a kind of small and rough carnival. This over, I 

 bade farewell to my brother and sister-in-law, my nephews 

 and nieces, my grand-nephew and grand-niece, and left for 

 the summit level of the Sierra Nevada on my way across the 

 continent to Quebec, whence I was to sail for Liverpool. 



