BOTANY. 91 
CHAPTER V. 
BOTANY. 
§ 64. Peculiar Fauna and Flora,—California has a botany 
and zoélogy of her own. Her indigenous plants and animals 
are peculiar to her soil. Her plants, ber quadrupeds, her birds, 
and her fishes, are different from those of other countries. The 
Californian vulture is, next to the condor of South America, 
the largest bird that flies; and he might easily migrate to other 
parts of the continent, but he makes his home only in this 
state, and is certainly never seen east of the Rocky Mountains. 
The grizzly bear might travel almost as well, but he is found 
only in California and Oregon. The Californian deer is differ- 
ent from that of Virginia in horns, teeth, feet, color, and size. 
The bird known as the roadrunner or paisano might fly to all 
parts of the continent, but is found only west of the Sierra 
Nevada. There is @ bluejay here, but it differs from the bird 
known to the New-Englanders as the blue-jay. The robin of 
New England differs from the robin of Old England, and the 
Californian robin differs from both. The sturgeon of the San 
Francisco market are not the same with those eaten in New 
York; and one species found in California is not found in a 
state so near as Oregon. Our trees are like, and yet are un- 
like, those of the Atlantic states and Europe. We have oak 
and pine, spruce, sycamore, and horse-chestnut trees, and yet 
any observant man sees at a glance that they differ in many 
important particulars from the trees known by those names 
elsewhere. California, with a little of the country adjacent, is 
a distinct botanical district. Her vegetation was first pro- 
