466 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



[ December 14, 1871. 



even lot. My first question was, Are these imported bulbs ? 

 " No, I have bought none for three years," and yet, strange to 

 say, the soil is not what is generally considered suitable to 

 this plant, being a somewhat heavy loam. The bed is raised 

 considerably above the surrounding level, so that the bulbs 

 have every chance of ripening well. The soil is also a good 

 loam for Grapes and every description of stone fruit, the flavour 

 of the Grapes being unsurpassed. — J. Douglas. 



CALIFORNIAN CONIFER.E, 



CoMMENOiNa in the southern part of the State, we meet in 

 her littoral belt, a little north of Sau Diego, a small species of 

 Pine, known to botanists as Pinus Torreyana. I have thus far 

 not been able to learn its vernacular rame. 



The trees are small and few in number; they resemble most 

 the so-called Digger Pine (P. Sabiniana) of our interior valleys. 

 The leaves are in fives and pretty long. 



The seeds are about as large as those of P. Coulterii. The 

 . locality mentioned is the only one known. It has not been 

 tested long enough in our gardens to know what may be ex- 

 pected of it as an ornamental tree. In a practical point of 

 view it is unimportant. 



Going northwards and keeping close to the sea coast, we find 

 at San Simeon Bay, at Monterey, and at a place a little south of 

 Peseadero, the so-called Monterey Pine (P. insignis). The 

 latter-named place is its most northern limit. It seems to 

 occur only on the immediate coast, on bituminous slate. Mon- 

 terey is the oldest seaport and the oldest point where botanists 

 began their labours in California. Already, towards the close 

 of the last century, it was visited by Menzies, an English 

 botanist. Our species in question, being variable in the form 

 of its cones, and the form of cones being one of the chief 

 characters relied upon in a botanical description, gave rise to 

 quite a number of synonymes. 



In Captain Beechej's work we find it figured under the name 

 P. Sinclarii. Later, it is again described by Loisleur, and 

 called P. californica. Don described it even twice, calling it 

 one time P. radiata and another time P. tubereulata. The 

 name P. insignia, gven to our species by Douglas, who visited 

 Monterey in 1830 or 1832, is the one now generally used. The 

 name cannot be considered as settled ; for according to the 

 Jaws of nomenclature adopted by botanists, it must retain its 

 first name, P. Sinclarii. 



This species attains a height of 80 to 125 feet, and a thick- 

 ness of 2 to 4 feet. In old age its shape is very irregular and 

 anything but beautiful. Its cones, three to five in a whorl, are 

 persistent for many years. The leaves are in threes. Its 

 timber is of little value when better can be had. In dry pro- 

 tected places it is pretty durable ; but exposed to the vicissi- 

 tudes of climate, it perishes soon. The tree, when young, is 

 undoubtedly beautiful. It is extensively found in our gardens, 

 and is known to every one as the Monterey Pine. 



Mixed with the species just treated of we find another two- 

 leaved one, P. muricata. The vernacular name in the southern 

 portion of the State is Bishop Pine; in the northern. Pitch 

 Pine. Ifc occurs near San Luis Obispo at an altitude of 

 3,000 feet; near the Mission La Purissima, where it forms 

 a smxU grive near Monterey, as just mentioned, sparing'y; 

 near Tomales Bay, scattered oyer hills; facing the cesan; 

 near Point Arenas ; also at the Albion River, extending 

 northward to the Ten Mile River (Mendocino county). Its 

 cones are in whorls of two to four, persistent for many years. 

 Some trees, 2i feet in diameter, had cones on the lower 

 branches partially overgrown by the bark. In some trees we 

 find a series of cones of twenty-five or thirty years. This 

 species has not yet found its way into our gardens. When 

 young it is beautiful, and apparently of a quick growth. The 

 old tree is irregular in outline, mostly weather-beaten and 

 unsightly. It attains a height of 50 to 80 feet. Its wood is fit 

 for fuel only. 



At the Albion River P. muricata is mixed with another two- 

 leaved species of Pine, P. contorts, Dougl, (P. Bolanderi, 

 Pall). It attains a height of 30 to 50 feet. On the upper 

 drier portions of the so-called plains of that region it bears 

 cones when it is about 5 feet high and 1 or 2 inches 

 thick. The cones, several in a whorl, are also persistent for 

 many years. Its small size and slender upright branches, 

 its short and densely set bright green leaves, render it desirable 

 for ornamental purposes. It evidently requires a sandy soil, 

 ■whether wet or dry ; it grows in both as its natural haunt-?. 

 la the vicinity of Fort Bragg this species forms a perfect 



barrier and shelter against wind and drifting sand. Nature 

 here hints at a remedy for us. This species used with the 

 Monterey Pine and Cypress, would protect our city from 

 drifting sand and fix the sand and soil. The people in that 

 section of the country have no vernacular name for it. In any 

 other point the tree is unimportant. It extends along the 

 coast northward up to Alaska. On the sierras it occurs between 

 3,000 and 11,000 feet, descending, however, gradually to the 

 north. This gradual descendance of all our trees on the 

 sierras towards the north is readily explained ; yes, it is self- 

 evident. On the sierras, opposite Visalia, our big trees set in 

 at 8,000 feet altitude. The Mariposa big tree is found to be 

 6,500, and the Calaveras 4,700 feet above the level of the 

 ocean. On the sierras, P contorta or Twisted Pine grows on 

 the banks of streams, on wet and moist flats, and in the 

 higher portions of the mountains on moraines. Here it 

 attains a height of 150 to 200 feet, and a thickness of 

 3 to 4 feet. Its outline is strictly cylindrical. Its wood is, 

 owing to the frequent storms on the mountains, twisted, and 

 therefore hard to split. It is principally used for building 

 log houses and railway ties. The vernacular name applied is 

 Tamarack. The application undoubtedly arose from the resem- 

 blance in form and habitat this species presents with our 

 eastern Larch (Lirix americana. Tamarack, Hackmatack) grow- 

 ing chiefly, it not exclusively, in swamps. The identity of the 

 coast and mountain form is not altogether safely established. 



Receding from the coast towards the east, we meet on dry 

 hillsides a small tree, generally known as P. tubereulata. It 

 attains a height of 20 to 40 feet, and a thickness of 10 

 to 20 inches. Its outline is conical. The leaves are in 

 threes and the cones persistent. In gardens it does well, and 

 as an ornamental tree is preferable to the Monterey Pine. I 

 have not been able to learn its vernacular name. Being small 

 and unsightly in its natural haunts, farmers never made any use 

 of it, and therefore give it no vernacular name. It occurs on the 

 coast mountains on the road to Santa Cruz, on the Oakland hills, 

 on the mountains around Ukiah, on the Red Mountain, Hum- 

 boldt county ; also near Forest Hill, at Cape Horn, and further 

 up near Alta in the dry slopes of the canon of the American 

 river. In most cases this small tree forms a small grove by 

 itself. After the trees have attained a height of 20 to 40 feet 

 they die and decay. 



Continuing our march eastward, we next meet, although 

 sparingly at first, our well-known Yellow Pine (P. ponderosa). 

 This species attains a height of 150 to 250 feet. Its form 

 is cylindrical in outline. The branches are short and gene- 

 rally dcflexed. The leaves are in threes and cones deciduous, 

 falling every winter to the ground after they have opened 

 (about the Ist of September) their scales to allow the seeds 

 to be spread by the winds. In gardens it cannot be called 

 an object of great beauty. But on the higher mountains, 

 where it developes its full colossal growth, it is certainly 

 a grand object to behold, and I can well see why Douglas 

 called it ponderosa, the mighty. Generally speaking its 

 timber is rather inferior, being too coarsely grained, and 

 therefore subject to early decay. It must be mentioned, how- 

 ever, that there is considerable difference in the quality of the 

 wood in different localities, yes, even in trees standing side by 

 side. The timber from Truckee, so called Truckee Pine, 

 belongs entirely to this species. The species in question is 

 one of the most widely distributed trees of the western coast 

 of North America. It grows on all higher and drier points of 

 the coast ranges, and it descends even into their dry gravelly 

 valleys, as is the ease a little north of Ukiah, Mendocino 

 county. It occurs on the Sierras from 1,500 to 9,000 feet, in 

 great abundance ; in fact, it is the principal component of that 

 mighty belt of timber extending from south to north along the 

 western slope of the sierras, between 2,000 to 7,000 feet, a belt 

 of timber whose equal cannot anywhere else be found. It extends 

 from the Colorado north throughout the Rocky Mountains, and 

 occurs also in the higher mountain ranges of the Great Basin. 

 Its northern limit is unknown. This immense diffusion over 

 so large a territory, exhibiting so many different expositions 

 and climatic differences, must naturally cause a great variation 

 in form and size of the tree and in the quality of its timber. 

 Its very botanical history proves this assertion, for there are 

 few trees that have more synonymes than the one in question. 

 Besides the name above given there are the following synonymes : 

 P. Engelmanni, P. bracbyptera, P. Benthamii, P. deflexa, and 

 P. Jtffreyi. The cones of trees in a dense forest are usually 

 small, while those of isolated trees standing in alpine meadows 

 or on bare rocky slopes of mountains, or on wide sandy plains 



