The San Francisco call., 1899-07-09

a number Of years a wanton destruction
Of the grove near La .Jolla had been going
on, more than one-half OF the trees oeing thFs
will cease now that the land is to be set
apart a park reservation.
The wild seedlings do not bear trans
planting. A few years ago the County
Board of Supervisors, with praisewor-
thy desire to preserve to posterity rev
of these trees, had a dozen removed 10
the Courthouse grounds in San Diego, but
to-day not one Is living to tell the tale;
The seeds do not germinate readily, and
only painstaking care can carry AIRY them thdIi
are safe, and a sturder grower is not to
be found. That they love the sea, is
shown by the tenacity with which tney
cling to the crumbling sandstone. over
hanging the beach. Some day California
will awake to the fact that here IS the
tree to reforest the barren coast hills.
part of European botanists and horti-
culturists for seeds of this pine, ana they
have been largely cultivated i'll Europe,
more for their rarity, however than Tor
The Pinus Torreyana is a small tree
twenty or thirty feet high and twelve TO
crowded at the ends Of the thick branch
lets in the axils of lanceolate. strongly
fringed braots, very stout. eight 70 twelve
hghss eshteen ''E, lines long, old ones six lines
long "a line is one-twelfth of an
incR); cones ovate, four to four and one
inches thick, patulous or defuxed on pc
ducles an inch long; umbo short and stout
or sometimes elongated and inHexed; ;
as long as the wing which encloses the
seed The Pinus Torreyana is fifty miles
from any other species of pine. In many
respects 1t resembles the historic PinuS
Pinea of the ancients. which has been
cultivated from time immemorial.
In a paper read before the San Diego
Society of Natural History November e.
ana, DR.. c. c. Parry, tells how he found
the rare and interesting pine tree he
said In the spMringi OF lS0 So,ngaen wa9R sop sn
peculiar species of pine growing on the
Pacc Coast tsad the m9nrn Sont0 OF TN tne s9e c
ual inquiry from DR.. j. l.. LIE Conte, the
DISTINGUISHED American entomologist,
then staying in San Diego, asking what
pine pine it wi was growing near the ocean beach
at that locality? Not having any speci-
mems to show he simply mentioned at the
times it's dense cones ana Ms us long, f st4ur f}a
an opportunity offered the writer for a
personal investigation, having been. or
Ss9ed by Ma5oT m of the 70
coal deposits on the ocean blum above
Soledad.
.sJn making a section of these strata
II was necessary to follow up some of the
sharp ravines that here debouch on the
ocean beach. and here my attention was
taken UP by this singular ana unique
maritime pine, which, with its strong
clusters of terminal leaves and It's dis
torted branches loaded down. with pom
botanical clutch. From the notes and
collections there made a description was
drawn up dedicating this well ll-marke1 a
new species to an honored friend and in
structor both of LIE Conte and the writer,
Viz. Dr. John Torrey of New York. as
Pinus Torreyana, Parry.
Though sixteen years have passed since
Or. Parry read that paper before the His
toricaI Society, it was only within the
past few weeks that steps were taken to
Set apart the pueblo lands upon which the
Pinus Torreyana stand for park purposes
An electric road may soon be running to
La Jolla, and 1t is not unlikely that an
extension of the road will be built to the
"Torrey pines"