House and Garden 
very noticeable, being a different color from that of 
the wood of the tree itself. 
In some of the cities of the Southern States the 
mistletoe is such a nuisance upon shade trees that the 
authorities resort to an annual trimming out of it 
shortly before the holidays. Of course the citizens 
are not slow on these occasions to avail themselves of 
a supply with which to decorate their homes. 
By Thanksgiving the foothills of the Coast Ranges 
and of the Sierra Nevadas are ablaze with the vivid 
cardinal of the toyon berries. The splendid, warm- 
green foliage, slightly prickly and suggesting the 
holly, serves only to heighten the intensity of the vivid 
coloring of the clustered berries. It is no wonder 
that Californians all love it and prize it so highly for 
its decorative qualities. Christmas would hardly be 
celebrated among them without the sprays of this 
beautiful sbrub. Florists’ windows and the baskets 
of street venders at that time are gay \\ ith the magnif¬ 
icent clusters of the rich cardinal berries. Very often 
the venders mix the berries with the foliage of a cer¬ 
tain live oak that exactly counterfeits the real holly. 
The toyon shrub grows handsomely in cultivation, 
as many Eastern tourists doubtless have observed, at 
the grounds of Flotel Del Monte, Golden Gate Park, 
in San Francisco and in various private gardens; but 
it is not cultivated so freely as it deserves to be for so 
handsome a shrub. 
Let me conduct my readers in imagination to any 
one of California’s redwood canons in the Coast 
Range Mountains near Vlt. d amalpais or along the 
banks of the Russian River, there to see one of the 
grandest decorative subjects to be found anywhere— 
that is the giant Woodwardia fern, very often and 
quite commonly, but erroneously called “brakes,” 
though the brake or bracken fern is not an evergreen 
as is the former. Flere in the damp, woodsy mould 
by the edge of a frolicking mountain torrent w e may 
see them revel in the gushing spray and wave their 
majestic branches, seven and eight feet long, in a truly 
regal fashion. 1 here is hardly a forest pool in these, 
or the Santa Cruz Mountains, but contains clumps of 
these handsome ferns. They are plumelike in ap¬ 
pearance with a heavy midrib and deep, notched 
clefts that extend from the edge nearly to the midrib. 
I he spores, or fruit dots, are arranged in lines par¬ 
allel to the midvein of these divisions. 
Perhaps overshadowing this fern-bordered pool is 
the beautiful madroha or arbutus tree, d he name 
madroha, given it by tbe early Spanish Californians 
because of its strong resemblance and close relation¬ 
ship to the Arbutus Uiiedo or strawberry tree of 
the Mediterranean countries, was called madrono in 
Spain. One tree on the shore of Lake Lagunitas 
in Marin County measures more than twenty-three 
feet in circumference and a hundred feet in height and 
sends out manv branches each two or three feet in 
diameter. A large part of the forest growth on the 
northern slope of Mt. Tamalpais is composed of it 
and as it is an evergreen, it forms a dense and refresh¬ 
ing shade the year round. The bark on the younger 
limbs which is a rich Indian red, begins to peel off in 
thin layers about midsummer leaving a clear, smooth, 
greenish-buff surface, and strewing the forest floor 
wdth its warm shreds it makes a rich, glowing carpet. 
The leaves, strongly suggestive of the rubber-tree, are 
likewise polished green above and somewhat paler 
on the under side. 
Glancing upward among the handsome leafy 
branches you will observe at this time of the year 
great clusters of crimson, rough-skinned berries. 
Last spring great panicles of small, white, w^axen 
bells resembling the lily-of-the-valley, hung in their 
places and filled the air of the sultry canon wdth their 
sweet perfume. This is one of the handsomest 
native trees of California, and it seems a great pity 
that it should be used so extensively for charcoal, to 
be used in the manufacture of gunpowder. As a 
decorative motive for Christmas it is quite showy in 
informal masses; and besides it has very good lasting 
qualities. 
At the florists’ shops in San Francisco one sees 
great quantities of the shrub known as Oregon grape, 
really not a member of the grape family at all, but 
of tbe barberry family, and known also as Mahonia 
or the holly-leaved barberry. It is a very orna¬ 
mental shrub and one much prized in Western 
gardens where it is known as Mahonia Aquifolium. 
In the spring when yelldw with its masses of flowers; 
or in its summer dress of rich, shining green; or in 
autumn wdien it is richly touched wdth bronze, or 
scarlet, or yellow amid which, are the beautiful blue, 
grape-like berries, it is always a fine shrub. The 
writer has seen it in its native haunts in the Oregon 
forests in the vicinity of Mt. Hood where it flourishes 
in great abundance and it is one of the handsomest 
low shrubs covering the forest floor. The leaves bear 
a strong resemblance to holly and seven or nine of 
them are arranged opposite each other on the stem. 
1 he margins of the leaves are beset with long, sharp 
needles; and, on the whole, it is a very unpleasant 
plant to the touch although a great treat to the eye. 
1 he Redwood, Sequoia seinpervirens, is a hand¬ 
some evergreen with foliage very similar to Eastern 
hemlock; although lacking the exquisite grace and 
softness of the latter, it possesses, nevertheless, a 
more vigorous look and does not shed its needles when 
it becomes dry as does the hemlock. 
Thus far I have mentioned mostly the native 
shrubs used as Christmas greens in California; besides 
these there are many imported trees that supply ex¬ 
quisite decorative material. Among these are the 
eucalypti or blue gums from Australia, the pepper tree, 
and the bold and handsome leaves, six and eight feet 
long, of the Phoenix Canariensis or Canary Island 
date palm, and those of the native Washington palm. 
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