564 RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY. Book IIT. 
obtained ; but connoisseurs agree that a proper treat- 
ment would produce a very superior article, which would 
be of repute in trade. Some Germans settled at Los 
Angeles seem desirous of giving their special attention to 
this subject. 
In the old Mission-gardens in the vicinity are still seen 
plantations of almond, olive, and date-trees, and new or- 
chards of this kind have been planted lately. Of the fruits of 
these trees, olives and almonds are seen on all Californian 
dinner- tables, — the former pickled, the latter as dessert ; 
but I have not seen dates grown in California, although 
the tree exhibits a vigorous growth in these southern parts 
of the country. Probably only the planting of both sexes 
of the tree sufficiently near to one another is required for 
the production of dates, as the climate is favourable 
to the culture of all other Levantine fruits. The orna- 
mental trees and shrubs of Italy and the Levant w T ould 
also do well here. Laurels, with trunks of an extraordinary 
thickness, are found among the evergreen trees growing in 
the defiles of the mountains on the Californian coast. This 
species is poisonous, and its exhalations are dangerous ; 
but the classical laurel of the Old World might un- 
doubtedly be planted in its stead, and the hedges round 
the gardens of Los Angeles, which now chiefly consist of 
willows, might quite as well be formed of myrtles, oleander, 
or pomegranate bushes, whilst the Italian pine and cypress 
would greatly increase the beauty of the landscape. 
The mineral treasures, which have given to California 
its chief importance, appear to abound less in the south 
than in the central and northern parts of the country. I 
cannot, however, assert more than that this appears to be 
the case. The want of water, so general in the southern 
half of the State, renders gold-washings either impossible 
