12 FOREST TREES OF CALIFORNIA. 



one half inch or less, lance-shaped, about three inches long, 

 somewhat saw-toothed on the margins, chiefly above, mod- 

 erately wedged towards the base, alternate, and when young, 

 of a bright, lively, yellowish-green tint, slightly varnished, 

 the color nearly alike on both surfaces; this cheerful hue is 

 very pleasing to the eye, seen against the darker background 

 of the old and denser foliage itself. In all the earlier periods 

 of growth, even well nigh unto old age, the habit is mainly 

 more strict and erect than much spreading; bark, dark iron- 

 hued, not very rough, often smoothish; aments or tags, very 

 short and crowded, not conspicuous ; the granular-surfaced 

 berries of the size of peas, clusters situated along the twigs 

 near the end of the previous year's growth, they are dark 

 purple, staining the fingers on pressure; the very thin pelli- 

 cle of wax is so obscure one is apt to overlook it altogether 

 unless special attention is called to solve the question. 



The largest Myrtle ever seen here, so far as I am aware, 

 flourished in the heart of the City of San Francisco many 

 years ago. This was renowned for its massive proportions, 

 consisting of three large tree-like trunks, each about a foot in 

 diameter, from a short base, or main body, nine feet in cir- 

 cumference. This grand sentinel stood guard by a spring 

 on the eastern slope of Russian Hill, under whose shadows 

 the early emigrant of '49 camped. Groves of them hid the 

 marshes of the lower portions of the city, but they are gone, 

 as perhaps most of their companions soon will be forever. 

 So, also, along the banks of Lobos Creek, and elsewhere, it 

 was no unusual sight to see trees one, to one and one half 

 feet in diameter, and thirty-five to forty feet or more high, 

 yet even these, which any tolerably enlightened self-interest 

 would have preserved, a wanton water company cut away : 

 nevertheless, we have an abiding faith that it will not 

 always be so. Let us turn our eyes from the pit of our own 

 and others' errors. Full of the charm that fascinates, in 

 communion with nature, is not the gay flower, the handsome 

 leaf, nor any symmetry of form in outline, mass, or detail, 

 nor grace of motion, waving with the wind, nor rustling in 

 sympathy when astir and softly pillowed by the gentle 

 zephyr; naj r , but whatsoever hath paramount power to 

 move most deeply the affections which underlie all the 

 blandished arts and airs — and these are those sweet aromas 

 that wake the soul to love. They come down anon with 

 overwhelming power in our inspirations of ethereal Autumn 

 airs, when all the landscape is brown and bare, when the 

 cloud-curtain of the faded year is ready to drop on all that 

 was beautiful and fair to view without, overshadowed the 

 divinely human, transfigured, we feel that it is good to be 

 there — are ready to pitch the tents of peace and dwell therein 

 forever. But returning, are there not thousands of similar 



