12 Miscellaneous Circular 31, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture 



This is one of the alders, the two 

 larger sorts being rather hard to dis- 

 tinguish. In both, the leaf veins are 

 conspicuous for their straightness, the 

 side veins running from the mid-vein 

 straight to the edge of the 3-inch leaf, 

 giving it the effect of a "permanent 

 wave." The Red Alder has somewhat 

 darker foliage than the White Alder, 

 and smoother gray bark. White Al- 

 ders, when large, are rather rough and 

 scaly toward the base of their trunks. 

 While generally taller than the wil- 

 lows and maples, with which they as- 

 sociate along our streams, they are 

 still medium-sized trees, seldom attain- 

 ing a height of even 90 feet. Some- 

 times, growing close together and ex- 

 cluding other species, they form 



Fig. 1 1.— Mountain Alder (Alnus 

 Stenuifolia) 



straight, clean stems bending at the 

 top over the water. 



The leaves do not color at all in the 

 fall; indeed they drop while still 

 green, leaving the tree bare for a long 

 season. But the Alders, the earliest 

 of all the stream-side trees to bloom, 

 put out their pendant catkins, known 

 as " tags," strung along a stem. The 

 Sierra species, the Mountain Alder 



(fig. 11), would almost meet the de- 

 scription given above for the two that 

 grow at lower elevations, except that 

 it is only 6 to 25 feet in height, 

 is more markedly and beautifully 

 toothed, and has more reddish color 

 on the early stems that hold the tags. 

 The main value of this mountain alder 

 is as protection for the headwaters 

 of streams — unless it be a credit to 

 this dwarf tree that it trains one's 

 patience by catching and holding one's 

 fishline. 



Even higher up than the Mountain 

 Alder, and over on the eastern slopes 

 of the Sierras, is found our one Cali- 

 fornia Mountain Birch. It is a real 

 birch, with the little heart-shaped 

 leaves and the shining " old copper 

 colored bark," as Sudworth describes 

 it, distinguishing it from other stream- 

 side growth. It is more often a mere 

 shrub, but has been found as large as 

 30 feet high and 10 inches in diameter. 



Like the alders, the seeds come in 

 tiny " cones," but these fall to pieces 

 when the seeds mature ; and, anyhow, 

 there is only one cone in a place in- 

 stead of the branched twig holding 

 several cones and persisting long after 

 the opening bracts have let the alder 

 seed fly out. 



You can see this dainty little birch 

 at the south end of Shasta Valley, in 

 the canyons on the west side of Owens 

 Valley, near Mono Lake, above Simp- 

 son Meadow in the Middle Fork of 

 Kings, and also in Bubbs Creek 

 Canyon. 



THE DESERT PALM 



In spite of the advertising on the 

 Atlantic coast of "native California 

 dates," in spite of the long-time ex- 

 periments with date-bearing palms 

 from Tulare south to Imperial, and of 

 ornamental palms and palmettos in 

 gardens all over the State, we are 

 bound to acknowledge that our one 

 native palm is the Desert Palm (fig. 

 12), the "Fan Palm," or Washington 

 Palm. It is a beautiful, hardy thing. 

 Its fruit is eaten by Indians ( and who • 

 has a better right to the native 

 fruits?), and it is said that genera- 

 tions ago the Indians of Palm Valley 

 thatched their huts with the leaves. 

 For most of us, however, it is an orna- 

 mental tree, seen where it is native 

 in the canyons opening into the Colo- 

 rado Desert of the southeastern part 

 of the State — Palm Canyon, Lukens 

 Canyon, "Thousand Palms Canyon." 

 etc. In these canyons it reaches a 

 height of from 20 to 75 feet. Under 

 cultivation it may do better than this. 

 On San Pedro Street in Los Angeles 



