Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 87.djvu/31

Rh forests of the northern coast region, there are, usually in remote isolated spots, a number of other conifers especially interesting on account of their extreme rarity. All these species, which are far more local and rare than the giant sequoia, are situated in the coastal region. They are supposed to represent an ancient flora that existed here when the coast ranges formed an archipelago some distance off the western shore of the continent.

The Torrey pine is the rarest pine in the world. It is found only in two small groves of scattered trees, one a few miles north of San Diego, and the other on the eastern end of Santa Rosa Island. San Diego has wisely acquired the mainland grove and established a park in order that these trees might be preserved.

The Santa Lucia fir inhabits the Santa Lucia Mountains, an isolated range lying along the coast between Monterey and San Luis Obispo. This fir is found nowhere else, and is distinct from all other firs in its sharp-pointed leaves and bristly cones. It is within the Santa Lucia National Forest and is therefore assured protection.

Both the Monterey cypress and the Monterey pine are found on the Monterey Peninsnla. The pine forms a forest over a large part of the peninsula and extends down the coast for fifteen to twenty miles. There is also a grove on the coast of San Luis Obispo County and another a few miles north of Santa Cruz. The cypress is confined to two small groves situated on the two promontories that mark the boundary of Carmel Bay, just south of Monterey. Here, perched on the high cliffs overhanging the Pacific and buffeted by winds and storms into picturesque, often grotesque attitude, they add a Japanese touch to the charms of this coast, famed as the most beautiful spot on the Pacific. We are constrained to say that both of these groves are under private control. Cypress Point, the more accessible of the two, is in the hands of a self-styled "Improvement Company," and as we write word comes that it is to be surveyed into lots and thrown on the market. May public-spirited citizens do their utmost to acquire and preserve this unique grove! Surely it will be to our everlasting shame if California permits the destiny of these, the rarest of all trees, to depend upon the whims of summer cottagers.

Much of the peculiar charm of California lies in her rolling foothills and broad fertile valleys, purple-rimmed by mountains. Here are great stretches of the beautiful valley oak, with its massive spreading crown sometimes nearly one hundred feet across. To quote Dr. Sargent, the best known authority on American trees:

No other region in the world presents anything to compare with its park-like beauty, the nobility of the individual trees, or the charm of the long vistas stretching beneath them.