The Botanical Aspects of Stanford University. 251 



0.5% agar-agar has been added, form red colonies. By this 

 time the water in some of the ponds has become so concentrated 

 that common salt crystalizes out. Despite the concentration, 

 which is sufficient to preserve meat or other putrescible sub- 

 stances from decay, there are animals, algae, and bacteria living 

 and even swimming in the almost syrupy liquid. Organisms 

 living under such extraordinary conditions are themselves extra- 

 ordinary; but only the beginnings of studies of saline organisms 

 and their environment have been made by zoologists, botanists, 

 and physiologists. 



On the heavy soil of the marsh Salicornia and other her- 

 baceous plants grow, Salicornia predominating near the w r ater, 

 the vegetation becoming more mixed as the soil lightens and be- 

 comes dryer. A mile, more or less, fiom the water's edge are 

 willows along the streams. The valley-floor, quite park-like 

 in places from the live oaks, richly repays cultivation and in 

 the absence of cultivation carries a rich and varied flora, mainly 

 herbaceous Climate and soil are so favorable that the gardens, 

 orchards, and fields are planted with an enormous variety of 

 plants, trees, shrubs, and herbs, among which wild plants of 

 many kinds also thrive The Arboretum of Stanford Universitv 

 contains some interesting foreign trees, as do also some of the 

 older and larger "places" of wealthy San Franciscans. 



The foothills are grassy, with scattered oaks, or covered 

 with "chaparral," a scrubby growth consisting of a considerable 

 number of species. This is so close in places as to be almost 

 impenetrable. The influence of the close-growing shrubs upon 

 the herbaceous plants is often very interesting. Castilleias 

 which may reach a height of eighteen inches in the open are 

 four feet or more tall in the chaparral. Eschscholzia Califor- 

 nia, the "California Poppy," which ordinarily has stems one or 

 two feet long, is much taller in the chaparral. A specimen 

 brought from the chaparral near Monterey is eighty (80) inches 

 long ! The effect is similar to what one sees here and elsewhere 

 on a small scale in hedges. 



The mountains were originally timbered and there are still 

 fine virgin forests within half a day's or day's drive. The steep 

 slopes and the canyons aie growing up again, after lumbering or 

 firing, to a mixed forest in which redwoods, madrones,and laurels 



