MR. HARTWEG'S JOURNAL OF A MISSION TO CALIFORNIA. 123 



The verdant fields and pine-covered range of mountains at the 

 back of the town form a pleasing contrast to the dried up vege- 

 tation about Mazatlan. The predominating trees are an ever- 

 green oak (Quercus californica), forming a tree 30 feet high, 

 with a globular crown, and having the branches much distorted. 

 It occurs principally in low but dry situations. The higher 

 parts are occupied by Pinus insignis, a tree 60 to 100 feet high, 

 with a stem of 2 to 4 feet in diameter. This species is liable to 

 vary much in the size of the leaves (which stand in threes) and in 

 the cones, according to local circumstances. In close woods, a 

 mile or two from the sea-shore, at an elevation of 200 to 300 feet, 

 the leaves usually measure 4£ to 5£ inches, and cones 4 to 4£ 

 inches in length by 2\ broad ; towards the beach, where the trees 

 are mostly one-sided — a defect caused by north-west winds, which 

 blow for the greater part of the year — both leaves and cones 

 diminish in size. These differences, which are too insignificant 

 to establish even varieties of Pinus insignis, have given rise 

 to the names Pinus tuberculata and radiata, which were, accord- 

 ing to Loudon, collected by the late Dr. Coulter near the sea- 

 shore at Monterey ; that locality, no doubt, is Point Pinos, as it 

 is the only habitat near Monterey where pines grow close to the 

 beach ; it is at the same time the place where I made the fore- 

 going observations. In all situations the cones grow three or 

 four together in a cluster, remaining on the trees several years 

 after shedding the seeds ; are pendulous, with the apex some- 

 what recurved ; deformed, that is, the scales on one side are more 

 developed than on the other, and enclose two winged seeds under 

 each scale. The cones are about eighteen to twenty-four months 

 in ripening. 



On the dry banks of ravines, to the north-east of the town, the 

 Californian horse-chesnut (Pavia californica) is common. This 

 extremely ornamental shrub or low tree rises to the height of 

 25 feet, is of a globular shape, and produces its fragrant white 

 flowers of a delicate pink hue in great abundance on spikes 

 12 inches long ; one of these spikes, which I had the curiosity 

 to count, had more than 400 open flowers and buds upon it. Of 

 shrubs I observed Ceanothus thyrsiflorus very common in the 

 pine- woods, and forming an evergreen shrub 10 to 15 feet high ; 

 Sambucus, No. 28;* Lonicera racemosa ; Spiraea ariaefolia ; 

 Rhus 3 sp. ; Caprifolium Douglasii, No. 4 ; Diplacus, No. 65 ; 

 Garrya elliptica ; Rosa, No. 12 ; Lupinus arboreus and ornatus ; 

 Ribes speciosum and malvaceum ; Adenostoma fasciculata, a 

 neat little evergreen shrub allied to Spiraea ; Arctostaphylos 3 



* This and the subsequent numbers refer to the Herbarium not yet re- 

 ceived. 



