wide and nearly globular, is eaten by the Indians, but has not attracted much attention from others.

Several, which may be called "Whelks," as they resemble more or less the Atlantic species so called, grow four or five inches long, and are doubtless quite as good as that animal for food, but have not yet been offered for sale, though many could be obtained by proper means. (47. Priene Oregonensis; 48. Ranella Californica; 49. Nassa fossata ; 50. Purpura crispata; 51. Chorus Belcheri; 52. Chrysodomus tabulatus, and many smaller kinds).

Of "Cuttle-fish" and "Squids," of which many kinds are eaten in Europe, and much used for bait on the Atlantic coast, we have several species, some growing three feet long, their arms stretching seven feet. They are much used by the Chinese, who consider them a luxury, and dry many for export to China. Among them is the kind which forms. the beautiful Paper Nautilus, or Argonaut Shell. (53. Argonauta Argo; 54. Octopus punctatus; 55. Ommastrephes giganteus).

CRUSTACEA.

CRABS, LOBSTERS, SHRIMPS.

These animals are abundant and large on our coast, but few species are used as food, although many more might doubtless be so.

The "Crabs" common in San Francisco market are of the following species, the first and largest of which grows six or eight inches in width, and all are excellent eating. (1. Cancer magister; 2. C. antennarius; 3. C. productus). A vast number of strange and little known species of Crabs are found in the salt waters, some of them growing over a foot in breadth, but too rarely caught to be used as food.

The "Lobster," which, however, has not the large claws of the Atlantic species, grows a foot and a half long, and is a favorite luxury, brought by steamers in large numbers from Santa Barbara. (4. Panulirus interruptus).

The "Shrimps" are caught abundantly in the bays, and almost always plentiful in market. They grow three inches long. (5. Crangon Franciscorum; 6. C. nigricauda).

"Crawfish" are also found in the interior, burrowing in the muddy banks of fresh water streams, and are doubtless very good eating, some being four or five inches long. (7. Astacus?)

CHAPTER VIII.

FLORA.

General Remarks-Sequoia-The Mammoth or Big Trees-Redwood-California Pines-Oaks Cedars-Firs-California Nutmeg-California Yew Tree-Laurel-Manzanita— Madrona-Horse Chestnut, or Buckeye-Shrubs and Plants--Poison Oak-Alder-Barberry-Canchalagua-Pitcher Plant-Yerba Buena-Flaxworts-Flea-bane-Soap Plant Grasses-Catalogue of Native Trees of California.

It appears from the reports of Botanists, over eighty of whom pursued their labors in California and Oregon, between the years 1792 and 1865, that only eighteen hundred different species were collected during that period. Of these eighteen hundred species, seventy-four per cent. are found in the collections of the State Geological Survey and of the California Academy of Sciences. Five per cent. are new to science, and eleven per cent. new to California. The Flora of California presents many original and striking features; the trees, shrubs, plants, flowers, and even the mosses, ferns, etc., while bearing a general resemblance to corresponding orders and genera elsewhere, are here marked by strong individual peculiarities; and in many instances the Flora exhibits examples wholly original-for instance, the Mammoth or Big Tree (Sequoia gigantea) and the Monterey Cypress (Cupressus Macrocarpa) occur nowhere out of California. The rapid growth of Californian vegetation is remarkable; the Botanist is surprised to find, after only a fortnight's absence, in revisiting the same locality, that not only most kinds of its flowering plants during that time have ripened their seeds, but that many new plants have made their appearance. The mountains of California are covered with forests of Pine, Cedar and Fir, exhibiting a great preponderance of coniferous over dicotyledonous trees, these conifers being restricted for the most part to the sea-coast and the mountain sides. Our streams are fringed with various deciduous trees and shrubs, whilst in the vast plains and prairie country of the valleys the prevailing plants are graminec, compositæ, leguminosa, with a greater number of liliacea than in any part of the

Eastern States. This proportion seems to hold good until the foothills of the Sierra are reached, where a greater variety of species, as well as of genera and classes, are met with. Here the graminea diminish in number, while the cruciferæ and the composite greatly increase. Here, also, the ranunculacea and gerania, with numerous variously colored and brilliant labiatæ occur; some of these mountain meadows, by the great variety of their flowering plants, outvying in this respect the most carefully selected flower gardens of the East. The same remark applies to the vegetation covering the several mountain ranges, these differences of form being so notable as to entitle them to a special Flora. Sometimes these distinctions are so broadly marked and obvious as to strike the casual observer, while again they are so slight and difficult of detection as to be found only by careful scientific analysis. In some cases these differences go to the essential properties of the tree or plant, while again they relate only to form, color, or other external characteristics. The principal reason of this mere dissimilarity is found in the fact that the Flora of California, owing to its isolated position, is purely indigenous. Cut off from all parts of the world by the great ocean that borders it on the west, and separated by the lofty Sierra and a succession of arid deserts from countries to the south and east, it has remained as when first shaped by the hand of nature. Its condition is normal, and, therefore, to some extent sui generis-a feature, that while it opens to the scientist a peculiarly inviting field, commands also, in many cases, the attention of the utilitarian and economist.

Confirmed by soil and climate, their original peculiarities have become so inherent in many of the species, that they do not thrive in other lands, and even refuse in some cases to grow at all; thus, Lilium Washingtonium, (Kell.), and many seeds and young plants of California growth, have in numerous instances been tried in foreign soils, and though planted under the most favorable conditions, have failed to fructify or take root, or, if they did begin to vegetate, died soon after, or maintained only a feeble and sickly existence. On the other hand, a few of these California productions take kindly to their new homes, and become even more fruitful and vigorous than when growing in their native soil; while it is worthy of remark that almost every plant of foreign origin finds in some part of this State a soil, climate, and other natural conditions, adapted to its constitutional requirements. In no other country is the range within which the products of the vegetable kingdom are capable of arriving at early and entire perfection so broad as in California. Practically it may be said, in this particu

lar, to cover all the zones that belt the earth with climatic differences. In fact, there is scarcely a cereal, fruit, plant or tree, wherever the place of its nativity, that cannot be grown and matured in the open air in some part of California. It may not be found economical in all cases to attempt the culture of these products on an extended scale, nor is it affirmed that they can here be raised in every instance so readily as in the countries to which they are indigenous; but simply that such is the variety of our soil and climate, that a locality can be found in some part of the State, where all the vegetable products of the world can be grown at least as an experiment, and a very large class of them with the greatest success.

The number of forest trees, exclusive of shrubs, found growing north of San Francisco and south of the Columbia river, does not probably exceed fifty. Both in number and size, the Coniferæ greatly predominate. The forest trees are distributed among the following genera: Pinus, 8; Abies, 5; Picea, 3; Sequoia, 2; Cupressus, 2; Thuja, 1; Lebocedrus, 1; Larix, 1; Taxus, 1; Torreya, 1; Quercus, 5; Populus, 3; Salix, 5; Fraxinus, 2; Acer, 2; Alnus, 1; Cornus, 1; Platanus, 1; Castanea, 1; Esculus, 1; Arbutus, 1; Oreodaphne, 1.

In California the forest growth ceases almost entirely at from ten thousand to eleven thousand feet altitude. On Mount Shasta all large trees disappear at an elevation of about eight thousand feet, only a few shrubs being found above this elevation. Of these shrubs a species of small pine, (Pinus albicaulis, or P. flexilis of the English botanist), grows in favorable places at a height of about nine thousand feet; some of these trees have here been so flattened and compacted in their foliage by the snow that a man can stand, and even walk upon them, without trouble. The Flora of this elevated locality conform more to that of the Arctic region than to that of most lofty mountains in the temperate zones.

At Mount Shasta, and in no other part of California, is found the Protococcus nivalis, or "red snow," one of the lowest forms of vegetable life, and peculiar to most high Alpine regions. It is the only sign of life above nine thousand feet, and makes its appearance from eight thousand to twelve thousand feet, tinging with a purple or crimson hue all this part of the mountain. When the snow is softened and warmed by the sun, the footprints of persons walking over it are stained with a blood-red color.

To collate within the space at our command the entire Flora of this State would be impracticable, therefore only a brief synopsis of the same will here be attempted. Much of the matter contained in the

following notes has been drawn from the reports of Dr. A. Kellogg, H. C. Bloomer (Curator of Botany, California Academy of Natural Sciences), Prof. H. N. Bolander, and to Dr. Newberry, of the Pacific Railroad Surveying Expedition.

SEQUOIA.

THE BIG TREES.

Sequoia Gigantea, (the Mammoth or Big Trees.)-The Sequoia is found only in California-the Sequoia Gigantea only in a few localitiesthere being but six or seven groves, so far as known, in the entire State; though it is probable others exist in the unexplored regions of the Sierra Nevada. Three of these groves are in Mariposa county, one in Calaveras, one in Tuolumne, and one or two in Tulare county-the trees in the latter locality being scattered over a great extent of country, admit of their being considered one grove or several. The three Mariposa groves are within two miles of each other. The second one in size contains eighty-six trees; the third, thirty-five. The Tuolumne grove contains ten trees-one or two of which are said to be thirty-fivefeet in diameter. The Calaveras mammoth grove was the first discovered, and has attracted many visitors.

The

One peculiarity of this tree consists in its bearing two kinds of leaves-those on the young tree, and on the lower branches of the larger one, being about five eighths of an inch long, and one eighth wide. They are set in pairs opposite each other, on little stems. other kind of leaves grow on the branches that have borne flowers, are triangular in shape, about an eighth of an inch long, and lie close down to the stem. The cones, solitary, or two or three together on long pedicels, are not much larger than a hen's egg, whereas the cones of many smaller conifers of the Coast are larger than pine apples. The seeds of the Sequoia gigantea are not more than a quarter of an inch long, a sixth wide, and almost as thin as writing paper, it taking about fifty thousand of them to weigh one pound. The bark is constructed on a different plan from that of most other trees-it being deeply corrugated longitudinally. The corrugated layers are of a harder texture, and the interstices are packed with an elastic, spongy substance. It is reddish brown in color, generally very thick-on the large trees not less than eighteen inches. The wood is soft, elastic, straight-grained, free-splitting, light when dry, and red in color-bearing a close resemblance to red cedar, but the grain is not quite so even, and is very valuable. The big tree grows in a deep, fertile soil, and is always surrounded by a dense growth of other evergreens, comprising the various species of