Christmas Gardens of California 
is the so-called banyan, a species of currant that 
attains the size and shape of a gigantic ball, twenty 
feet across. Here is an oak peculiar to the island, 
manzanita, adenostoma, winter apple, and others of 
interest and beauty. 
A home about which many attractive nooks can 
be found is up the Santiago canon in Southern Cali¬ 
fornia, Fig. 7. Here the actress Modjeska made her 
home and named it “Arden.” The ranch is reached 
through a beautiful country passing through groves 
of live oak which rise on every side. About the 
house are groups of 
ancient trees be¬ 
neath which is a 
beautiful pool, in 
whose crystal waters 
the trees are re¬ 
flected so distinctly 
that the picture can 
be almost reversed. 
Around this home 
are many delightful 
trails and walks, 
suggesting a fascina¬ 
ting pastoral life. In 
thinking of gardens 
and homes which 
are character¬ 
istic one cannot 
pass the famous one 
at Santa Anita 
Ranch, owned byE. 
y. Baldwin, the lat- 
t e r a pioneer in 
California, s u r- 
named Lucky, and 
known to thousands 
over the country. 
The splendid and 
typical ranch is a 
mecca for tourists 
from all over the 
world. It was, so it 
was said, Baldwin’s ambition to own a stretch of 
land from the Sierras to the sea, and that he nearly 
accomplished it goes without saying as his property 
began with Santa Anita canon in the Sierra Madre, 
a few miles east of Pasadena, and extended many 
miles or almost to the Pacific, a splendid reach or 
sweep of land embracing several large ranches. 
The ranch house. Fig. 8, stands near an attractive 
lake in a forest of some of the largest palms and 
eucalyptus trees in the country and a maze of tropical 
verdure, constituting one of the most picturesque 
spots on the slope of the mountains. 
Almost encircling the ranch house is a lake, a rare 
thing in Southern California, on the edge of which are 
many palms, papyrus from the Nile and other plants. 
giving a tropical effect. From the drive the ranch 
house is seen through arches formed by the eucalyp¬ 
tus trees, and on every hand and in every direction are 
vistas pleasing and novel, at least to Eastern eyes. 
The palms here are among the oldest and tallest 
found in Southern California, dating from the early 
mission time more than a century ago. 
Line drives wind through the place, encompassed 
by rare plants and trees, the entire ranch with its 
enormous orange, lemon and deciduous groves, its 
hundreds of acres in wine grapes telling the story 
of productive 
Southern California. 
One of the pictur¬ 
esque features of the 
place, an Eastern 
feature, is the pop¬ 
lar lane. Fig. 9, a 
long double line of 
these beautiful trees 
growing to great 
height and blending 
into rows of eucalyp¬ 
tus trees of which 
there are scores of 
varieties on the 
ranch. The latter 
are a study in them¬ 
selves, the blossoms 
being fascinating in 
their colors and 
shapes. One tree 
is a blaze of red, the 
blossoms being 
blood color, present¬ 
ing a strange and 
startling contrast to 
the vivid green 
leaves. 
Another one {E. 
globulus) has the 
d aintiest, fluffiest 
blossoms hanging in 
pendulated clusters of softest white and pale green. 
Here is a variety {E. Germani) whose blossoms are 
ot a tawny yellow color, in sphere-like clusters, three 
or four inches in diameter. The widely differing 
members of the eucalypti family—about one hun¬ 
dred and forty—give to California a great diversity 
of distinctive trees for ornamental and economic 
purposes, for their uses and adaptability are almost 
as numerous as is their variety. 
Within a radius of thirty miles of Los Angeles 
there are scores of ranches and fine places nearly 
all of which are characteristic of the country, contain¬ 
ing attractive nooks and corners, especially in their 
wealth of verdure, their contrasts of trees and flow¬ 
ering plants from every quarter of the globe. 
FIG. 9 -A LANE BACK OF A RANCHEr’s HOME 
7 
