The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1882-12-30
Cur 0liu.
CALIFORNIA TREES.

A correspondent of the New York OBJ
server, writing from Oakland, California,
December l, 1882, says:
A visitor from the East is greatly struck
with the difference between the forests of
New England and those of the Pacific
slope. Many of the most common and
most useful trees of New England are
wanting here, including the elm, hickory,
chestnut and beech trees 1t is said that
there are few naples growing in the
depths of the Northern Sierra Nevadas,
but they are not found elsewhere in the
State.
The one California tree with which East
ern people seem to be most familiar is the
redwood, which makes the most valuable
timber of California. This tree is a near
relative to the so-called "Big Trees, " which
it so strongly resembles as to be often mis-
taken for the same, the main difference be-
ing in the foliage. Both are eVergreens,
one having fat leaf, like the arbor-vite,
and the other round leaf, like the cedar.
The redwood is confined to the Northern
Coast Range Sometimes it attains the
height of three hundred feet, but this is
only in the fastnesses of the mountains,
where the Portuguese wood-chopper has not
yet appeared. The wood of this tree is, of
course, red in color, very brittle, but still
useful for building purposes. In the inte-
rior of the large schoolbuildings around
San Francisco Bay a fine contrast is OBJ
tanned by panelling the halls and class
rooms in vanished redwood and pine al
ternately.
Some have thought that the redwood is
not durable enough for building purposes,
but this is a mistake. Wood taken from
the butt will last indefinitely. In Santa
Cruz there is standing a split-picket fence
of redwood most of the pickets being an
inch thick This fence has stood for the
last fifty years, and is perfectly sound.
At the corner of Montgomery and Cali
fornia streets, San Francisco, is redwood
sidewalk that has been there for twenty
years.
On the margin of California streams the
traveller often finds the cottonwood, and,
if he rides too near, bears away with him
many tokens of his discovery in the white
patches adorning his clothing. The tim
ber of the cottonwood is soft and not valu-
able, but the tree itself is beautiful-look-
ing object, as it towers above the stream
some eighty feet or more. On the plains
around San Bernardino, the settlers, for
lack of fuel, plant line fences of cotton
wood. These grow very rapidly, and, in
two years, the owners may cut from their
line fences all the frewood required.
The evergreen manzaDita, half tree, half
shrub is beloved by California children.
1t bears great punches of the most brilliant
red berries that ever delight the childish
eyes of the little dwellers among the dry
foothills The Spanish name signifies
''little apple" probably from the shape of
the berry. The forlorn, lazy, dirty Digger
Indians also admire the manzanita, and
gather large quantities of the berries, from
which they are said to make kind of ci-
der. The root of the manzanita is very
tough and fine grained, and takes beauti-
full polish. 1t is frequently used for ma
king handles to parasols and umbrellas.
One popularity of the manzanita is the
shedding of its bark in the fall of the year,
in much the same manner that other trees
lose their leaves This popularity is shared
by the madrona tree, found in the same To-
calities as the manzanita, and also bearing
red berries, which are the favorite food of
hocks of wild pigeons. The madrona, i'm
mediately after shedding its bark, is of a
bright salmon color, which gradually grows
darker and darker until next shedding
time. The wood of the madrona is exceed
ingly hard, and is used extensively in the
manufacture of shoe-lasts.
One of the most common of California
trees, and one most noticeable to the tray,
eller, is the California Gve-oak, so called
because it always retains its leaves. Oak
land, opposite San Francisco, is so named
because of the live-oaks that once covered
its site, many of which still remain. Run
ming up the valleys of the Sacramento Oh
San Joaquin, the traveller by rail may see
scattered here and there over the broad
meadow lands, clumps of live-oak, while
in places, solitary specimens appear, giving
to the landscape in the spring the ap'
pearance Of an enormous park laid out by
some gardener with an eye to artistic eff
feet.
In Sonoma, and other northern Bay
counties, the woodpecker makes use of the
live-oaks for the storing of acorns. In the
Smithsonian Institute, in Washington,
once saw two very fine specimens, from
California, of oak trunks filled with these
acorns. The early settlers in Californis
never regarded the woodpecker's stores as
of any worth, and many time built theil
evening fires of branches that would have
been highly priced by Eastern curiosity
lovers The mistletoe frequently is seer
in great masses on these trees, and, in So
noma county, there is kind of moss, from
six inches to foot in length, that hang
from the limbs,
The California buckeye is beautiful
tree, found often in the foothills. 1t il
large and spreading in form, and in june
is covered with white-and- pink blossoms
The nuts are peculiar They vary in sizt
from that of small peach to medium
sized apple. When green they are covered
with shell resembling the envelope of the
English walnut. This gradually becomes
dry, splits in the middle, and the buckeye
nut appears.
i The California laurel is one of the mos
useful woods for veneering. Il is usually
a small tree, that found on the sand hilli
of San Francisco being only about ifteer
feet high. It's leaves are quite aromatic