Domestic Notices. 561 



The big Arbor Vit^ of California. — A friend and correspondent, re- 

 siding at San Jos6, writes to us as follows, in regard to this wonder of 

 vegetation : — 



" The hilld opposite are covered with beautiful timber of Taxodium sem- 

 pervirens, Pinus Benthamiana and Lamberttana, and at Santa Cruz, about 

 seven miles distant, you would sit down and gaze upon them with admira- 

 tion ; but if you were to see the big Arbor Vitae, now on exhibition at San 

 Francisco, thirty fed in diameter, you would be perfectly amazed. When 

 I went to see it there were twenty people dancing in the hollow part, with 

 chairs and sofas all round. I tried to get some seeds but could not. I 

 know some men who are going to cut wood in or near the locality, and will 

 make arrangements with them to procure some. — Yours, B. S. Fox, San 

 Jose, .Vovember 1, 1853." 



Old Colony Sweet Corn. — We received from Hovey &, Co., Boston, 

 last spring, some of this corn, which we distributed ; and from the returns 

 we have received, as well as from a trial of it ourselves, we think it one of 

 the most productive and useful varieties of the Sweet corn we have seen. — 

 (Journal ofJVew York State Jigricidtural Society.) [We are glad to hear so 

 good an account of it, from one who is so good a judge as Col. Johnson, the 

 secretary. — Ed.] 



Cerasus Ilicifolius, or Evergreen Hollt-Leaf Cherry of Cali- 

 fornia. — This beautiful ornamental evergreen is found within the limits of 

 San Francisco, on the North Beach side of our city, below Clark's Point, 

 perched upon tlie brow of one of the loftiest bluffs of the Bay. At this 

 point the trees are young and thrifty, shooting up erect and spreading 

 branches, with a dense, dark glossy green foliage — often bent back, en- 

 closing or hiding their twigs from the casual view ; the leaves thus arranged 

 alternately, in four ways loosely imbricated, like tiles on a roof, give the 

 young branches a somewhat stiff, columnar appearance. 



At Capt. Maltby's Rancho, just below Point Jackson, in a sheltered nook 

 of the Bay, it is much larger, rising to thiity feet in height, and about afoot 

 or more in diameter. Here we observed one of those remarkable, fantastic 

 freaks of nature so common on the Pacific: numberless limbs on all parts 

 of the tree were seen growing together, often to upwards of twenty, all 

 united, forming singular fan-shaped radiations of flat twigs from one to two 

 inches in width, and no thicker than a quill! Some fine specimens of -the 

 Holly-leaf Cherry are to be seen on the road between Monterey and the 

 Solidad Mission ; it is also said to be common about the Mission of San 

 Antonio, and along the western slopes of the mountains as fur south as San 

 Bernardino. 



From the general appearance of the foliage, it naturally suggests to every 

 one, at first sight, the idea of its being a species of Holly ! Tliis mistake we 

 were well-nigh falling into on seeing it for the first time in mid-winter, but 

 tasting (as we are wont to do) soon revealed the true cherry flavor. It is 

 from this circumstance named Cerasus Ilicifolius, (from Ilex, the Holly, 

 and/o/iiis, a leaf— or conjoined, signifying Holly-lea/ Cherry.) This species 

 of evergreen cherry bears a corresponding relation to the Sylva of tlie 

 VOL. XIX. NO. XII. 71 



