the museum inclosed in the beautiful building which stands be- 

 fore us. To this museum the Southern California Academy of 

 Sciences loaned its most valuable collection of prehistoric relics, 

 and other organizations made loans or contributions according 

 to their possessions. An agreement was entered into for a 

 period of fifty years, providing for a Board of Governors which 

 should be composed of representatives of the various bodies 

 and organizations party to the contract ; and in this body is 

 vested the conduct and management of the museum. It is well 

 known, of course, that the county of Los Angeles furnished the 

 money which built this stately and beautiful building, provided 

 its fittings and defrays all expenses of operation. It has seemed 

 proper to me that this statement should be made, and that the 

 present is a most fiting occasion to make it, defining the rela- 

 tionship of the Academy to the Exposition enterprise, and 

 awarding a proper recognition to our Academy of Sciences, 

 which really secured this most unique and invaluable natural- 

 history collection, (the Brea Bed fossils), for the benefit of the 

 people of Southern California and the visitors within our gates 

 for all time. 



A few months ago I had the honor to participate in the 

 unveiling of a tablet which commemorates the historic palm 

 trees standing on the other side of the park, successfully re- 

 moved from another part of the city and established there by 

 the management. Those trees are suggestive of oriental tradi- 

 tions and Bible history as well as of deserts and tropical lands, 

 and they have come down through a vista of early California 

 history which recalls the sway of the Dons, part Spanish, part 

 Mexican, part Oriental, part American pioneer life. Today we 

 plant oak trees, — California live oaks, — which are peculiarly ap- 

 propriate for these strenuous times and suggestive of memory, 

 hope and courage. Hearts of oak, — filled with English tradi- 

 tion and early American history; hearts of oak, expressive of 

 the hope of civilization which stands trembling in the balance of 

 the most terrific struggle the world has ever seen. 



This apparently simple ceremony of planting a small tree, 

 if we regard it in its symbolic aspect, is fraught with deep sig- 

 nificance and, let us hope, with enduring import. Here it is, 

 a mere sapling, a mere wisp of plant growth ; — any vandal 

 hand might pull it up and utterly destroy it now or at any time 

 for years to come ; any beast might trample it under foot , any 

 predatory rodent or parasite might sever its apparently slender 

 hold on life. And yet we plant this tree on the open grotmd, 

 under the blue arch of the skies, subject to all the changes of 

 weather, all the storms, and winds and frosts and drouths that 

 may come, and, with the reasonable care and pi u Section wriich 

 we know it will receive during its earlier period, we feel certain 

 that it will strike its roots deep into the soil and rear its grace- 



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