CHAPTER XXII. 153 



on this account. The leaves are picked and put up in pillows or sachets, 

 in whijli this tonic and pleasing odor is long maintained. 



The California nutmeg, with its long, prickly, needle-like, shining 

 leaves, and its fruit resembling a small, green plum externally and a 

 nutmeg internally, is related to the Conifers, and will be found spar- 

 ingly along stream-banks in the northern or Sierra reservations. 



Here also, at much higher altitude, among the bare crags below 

 Farewell Gap, and near Half Dome above the Yosemite Valley, grows 

 the Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis). Its foliage is cypress- 

 like, and its fruit a small blue berry, but its trunk is remarkable for 

 its great breadth as compared with its height. 



Sequoia gigantia, the "Big tree" or "Redwood" of the Sierras, is so 

 well-known and is so conspicuous from its huge light brown or salmon- 

 colored trunks, its crown of cypress or juniper-like foliage and small 

 oblong cones, that it requires but brief mention. It appears on the Na- 

 tional parks and reservations rather frequently south of the Kings riv- 

 er in Tulare county. Northward to Placer county the small scattered 

 groves are mostly in private hands. 



These are the outline sketches of our leading forest trees. The 

 few striking characteristics of each mentioned it is hoped will enable 

 the student to identify the species and then to complete a knowledge of 

 them by personal observation. 



Then-, are, in wet places rnd along canyon streams, some other trees 

 we should not entirely neglect. 



The alder is the dense foliaged, dark green leaved, deciduous tree 

 on the lower mountain water courses. In these, we also find the native 

 maple. The native Bay tree is another water seeker. This handsome 

 evergreen becomes more scattering and finally disappears from the can- 

 yons as we recede from the ccast. Its leaf has an intensely pungent odor. 

 In the Coast Range canyons in the northern part of the State, where the 

 bay, "Umbellulaia Californica," grows into a superb tree, I have been 

 oppressed after a foggy night on going into the canyons as the sun come 

 out by the powerful odor of the bay trees. 



The sycamore and cottonwood pop'ar go out in the canyons and 

 washes toward and into the valleys. 



The California cottonwood poplar is a remarkably hardy tree, 

 standing both alkali and rocky soils, and the alternate frosts and fiery 

 heats of our high des3rts. 



The poplar has two species here, the principal one being P. Fre- 

 mont!, the cottonwood, and the other P. Trichocarpa, the Balsam pop- 



