Live Oaks 135 
land. Pepper, olive, and eucalyptus are 
aliens—acquired graces—but the live oak is 
the inheritor of the soil. Beneath it rested 
the wandering Padres of Old New Spain; in its 
shade dwelt those Indian peoples who were 
before New Spain; and in its woodland 
sanctity dwell still those gentle floral races 
who were before either, and which are as indi- 
genous as the sheltering tree—blue-eyes, hedge 
nettle, brodiea and toothwort—exquisite 
blossoms of the early season, possessing all 
the delicacy and innocence of woodland 
flowers. 
Flourishing in the cafions and the rich al- 
luvial valleys, the live oak forms delightful 
groves whose significance and charm is not 
that of the forest, nor yet of the woods as 
we know them in the East, but is more com- 
pletely sylvan and woodland, and whose 
affinity, all the more because of a mild and 
delectable climate, is with the classic and 
antique world rather than with the present. 
While essentially a gregarious tree, it is as 
original and whimsical in its development as 
the spruce is conventional and the result 
of this arboreal whimsicality is delightful. 
Branches wander hither and yon, sometimes 
starting bravely upward but eventually turn- 
