June 9, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



223 



The Flora of Ukiah Valley. 



IN a former article (vol. ix., page 482) I touched upon 

 the geological formation of Ukiah Valley, and stated 

 that Ukiah Valley was once a lake, not in the distant past, 

 but so recently that its extinction cannot date back more 

 than a hundred years. Nearly all of the oblong or round 

 valleys, common in the Coast Range north of San Fran- 

 cisco Bay, are also the beds of lakes. Northward of Ukiah 

 several valleys on Eel River still contain the remnants of 

 the lakes at the lower end. East of Ukiah lies Clear Lake, 

 quite a large body of water, and at its north end Sule Lake 

 is a vivid illustration of the process by which so many 

 other lakes have been extinguished. This is a lake of con- 

 siderable size, so much shoaled by deposits that tall rushes 

 cover nearly the entire surface, and inpouring streams are 

 rapidly filling it on the sides. Such a lake once covered 

 Ukiah Valley. Swift-coursing streams poured from the 

 steep mountains about and carried great quantities of 

 debris. The prevailing formation is sandstone and shale, 

 which rapidly disintegrates, and the slopes are so steep 

 that erosion is rapid. Deltas of gravel or clay were formed 

 where the streams deployed into the valley. Those formed 

 when the lake was highest are the high bench lands about 

 the bases of the mountains. Lower benches were formed 

 in succession as the lake receded, and when at last the 

 valley was drained by the combined process of filling on 

 one hand, and the cutting down of the outlet on the other, 

 the larger streams cut through their earlier formation, 

 making rich vales, while the smaller streams deployed 

 over the mud flats and carried rich deposits of mud, fine 

 gravel and leaves to form the black gravel lands of to-day. 

 This latter process is rapidly going on even now. At the 

 final ending of the lake the extinction of the beaver and 

 the burning of their dams bore no small part. Along the 

 large streams alluvial deposits were made, gradually rais- 

 ing the land next them to a little above the height of the 

 lower valley between the rivers and the benches. 



In our beautiful valley each formation has its flora. The 

 trees and shrubs on the higher benches vary according to 

 the soil. Most of the benches were in woods, especially 

 where the formation was a deep gravelly one. Some 

 extensive benches were formed by the large creeks rising 

 in the Chemise-covered mountains. These are a very deep 

 poor gravel, and are a home for nearly all of the trees and 

 shrubs and many of the plants characteristic of the Chemise 

 region. More frequently, however, the uplands were clothed 

 with a fine growth of timber, among which the Black Oak, 

 the Post Oak (Quercus Douglasii), the Douglas Spruce 

 and the Madrona predominated. There were large trees 

 in abundance and a wealth of flowers beneath. Since I 

 have known these uplands there has been an undergrowth 

 of young Madroflas, both seedlings and clumps of sprouts 

 from older stubs, of Manzanita and of Oaks. The Douglas 

 Spruce, too, are mostly young trees. I have no doubt 

 that previous to the settlement by the whites almost 

 annual grass fires, set by Indians, kept this small growth 

 down, and that the woods then were quite open. Along 

 the river banks, and covering almost the entire alluvial 

 deposit, was another strip of woodland which has now 

 largely given way to orchards, Hop fields and Alfalfa. 

 Sections still remain thickly clothed with White Oaks, Quer- 

 cus lobata, Ash, Laurel, Willows, which are not bushes, but 

 large trees, Box Elder and Cottonwood. Occasional Alders, 

 brought down by the streams from their mountain home, 

 live next the water, and nearer the hills, too, the Oregon 

 Maple. Clematis ligusticifolia and wild Grapes climb to 

 the tops of great trees. Wild Blackberries run riot over 

 bushes, and in early summer the Big Root, Megarrhiza 

 Marah, grows as luxuriantly as the famous Bean-stalk in 

 Jack's romance, for a short while, and hangs thick with 

 its thorny-looking fruits Here are thickets of wild Roses, 

 Rosa Californica, ten or twelve feet high. Down in the river 

 bed the deposits of sand or gravel harbor many plants of 

 mountain origin, which in their short existence rival their 



home brethren. Some of these river beds are a rich field 

 for the flower lover. Late in summer they have their own 

 flora, such as the gorgeous Mentzelia kevicaulis with rich 

 yellow flowers fully six inches acrftss. 



The lands lying between the alluvial belt and the first 

 bench are low and often wet. Few trees grow on them, 

 except scattering White Oaks. Originally they were cov- 

 ered by a dense growth of Grasses and wild Anise, with a 

 multitude of flowering plants, many of them liliaceous. The 

 rich, gravelly deposits were the favorite home of the White 

 Oak, and before the needs of the farmer caused these to be 

 cut they formed open woods for miles in the valley, and 

 nearly all were large trees. In such grounds, too, the Elder 

 is to be found, not the bush of the eastern states, but a tree 

 a foot or more in diameter and twenty or thirty feet high. 



The flowers and trees of the lower hillsides vary as the 

 soil differs. Those facing south are oftener bare or thinly 

 timbered, and those facing north are usually well wooded. 

 In my article, "A Canon near Ukiah" (vol. ix. , p. 482 and 

 p. 493), I described a prevalent form of growth. The canons 

 on the east side of the valley differ from those on the west, 

 as I hope to show another time. , _ , 



Ukiah. Calif. Carl Purdy. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Aristolochia Goldieana. — Plants of this extraordinary 

 Birthwort have lately flowered in the stoves at Kew. It is 

 a native of Old Calabar, where it occurs abundantly in 

 swampy ground, the large flowers resting on the earth 

 and impregnating the air with their fetid odor for miles 

 around. It has been in cultivation about thirty years, 

 but from the difficulty of inducing it to flower it has never 

 found any favor outside botanic gardens. It differs from 

 the popular, easily grown Aristolochia Gigas Sturtevantii 

 in having a tuberous root-stock, annual stems, and in the 

 flowers developing on the base of the young growth before 

 the leaves have appeared. During winter the plants 

 should be kept quite dry, and in March they should be sat- 

 urated with water and placed in the hottest, moistest, 

 sunniest position in the stove. The flowers are twenty-six 

 inches long, a foot in diameter, three-lobed and colored 

 chocolate-red with yellow mottlings. 



Solaxum Wendlandii. — This plant is again magnificent in 

 the Water-lily house at Kew, where it festoons a portion of 

 the roof with its straggling stems, bearing enormous clus- 

 ters of bright purple-blue flowers. Nothing could be hand- 

 somer in the way of a roof-climber for the stove, and no 

 plant gives less trouble to the cultivator when once its 

 requirements are understood. For years it was grown in 

 a pot among the Succulents at Kew, treatment which kept 

 it alive, but never induced it to flower. It was then planted 

 in a shallow border in the porch of the Water-lily house 

 and the shoots trained along the girders of the roof. The 

 bright sunshine and fresh air which it here obtained suited 

 it, and it has flowered freely and continuously every year 

 since. During winter it is kept quite dry when all the 

 leaves fall off. In February it is pruned to short spurs ; the 

 roots are then well soaked with water and top-dressed with 

 manure. These details may help those cultivators who 

 have tried and failed with this grand plant. 



Utricularia Forgetiana. — This is the name given by 

 Messrs. F. Sander & Co. to an exceptionally strong-grow- 

 ing, large-flowered variety of the Brazilian Utricularia Iongi- 

 folia, which they have recently imported and which has 

 flowered freely this spring in their nursery. The stems 

 creep as in the well-known U. montana, and from them 

 spring numerous linear lanceolate wavy leaves about a 

 foot long. The flower-spikes are erect, two feet or more 

 high, each bearing from twelve to twenty flowers, which 

 are two inches across and of a rich violet-blue color with 

 a blotch of orange-yellow on the boss-like cushion at the 

 base of the lip. The flowers last about a week, and Messrs. 

 Sander & Co. have had plants continuously in bloom for 



