CALIFORNIA MYRTLE. 11 



painter, or to poet, ruralist or sage, higher and highest, is 

 ever begotten, ruled in wisdom, registered on all these — His 

 works. To us, this Tassel Tree mingles with the rugged and 

 sturdy, sober, and serious, somewhat of the pretty and the 

 playful. Return with us again ; view it astirred by the 

 breeze ; now, those long limsy tags in their rollicking giddy 

 motions will surely remind you, in their perfect abandon, of 

 those wanton lamb's tails — when the lambs themselves were 

 wont to play "tag" on the sunny old barn floor of a gay 

 Spring morn, in the days when you were young; or witness 

 the like joyous lines and big successive drops leap out the 

 cascade, arching airy diamonds aloft with an extra touch 

 and toss of freedom, grace, and beauty, high above and 

 beyond, crating the choicest gems of the fountain; or have 

 we in all serenity of delight seen the lambs cascading, tail 

 and all, in a similar way? then tell us if they do not run 

 together in parallel lines of a just similitude adown to the 

 great ocean of truth. 



The wood appears to be exceedingly hard and tough, but 

 we have no knowledge of its applied use. As a tonic and 

 febrifuge it is scarce at all inferior to Peruvian barks. Of 

 the Garryas we have about half a dozen species, of which 

 this is, perhaps, the best type. Ere long we trust they will 

 be duly appreciated, for ornament, for medicine, and for 

 other uses. 



CALIFORNIA MYRTLE, OR SWEET-GALE TREE. 



(Myriea Californiea.) 



"Sitting in a pleasant shade, 

 W'hich a grove of myrtles made." — Banner field. 



A TREE thirty to forty feet high, one to three feet in 

 diameter ; always a large shrub of ten to twenty feet, 

 emulating trees. These dark evergreen, densely leafy 

 shrubs or trees, are covered with balsamic glands that yield 

 their sweet aroma to the breeze, and when bruised in the 

 hand, emit a strong but refreshing resinous, or rather bal- 

 samic odor, as observed, that greatly reminds you of the 

 Eastern little sweet-fern shrub (Comptonia asplenifolia), to 

 which it is allied; to the European, however, it recalls the 

 delightfully fragrant Sweet Gale (Myriea Gale), of his home 

 beyond the waves; and, by the way, it should be noted that 

 the true Sweet Gale is also a native of California, found in 

 the canons in the vicinity of Yosemite, where we collected 

 it many years ago. These Myrtle leaves are rather narrow, 



