Remarks on California Trees.BY HENRY N. BOLANDER.Note.—Localities given with two !! I have not visited myself. I would also further remark that I am by no means sure of having correctly determined the two oaks—Quercus DouglasiiandGarryana.It may not be altogether amiss to offer some observations on the distribution and value, as specimens, of some of our trees which I have met with on my various trips over a portion of this State.1.Pinus Sabiniana, Dougl. (Digger Pine.)Invariably disposed over south-hillsides of the interior, occupying the driest expositions—Mount Diablo! Russian River Valley! Geysers! Auburn and Forest Hill! San José Valley! Near Mission San Antonio!! Mountains east of San Diego!!As to its value there are a great many contradictory assertions made by farmers; some assert it yields an excellent wood for yokes and similar objects, while others denounce it as entirely useless.2.Pinus Lambertiana, Dougl. (Sugar Pine.)Pine Mountains near Geysers! Near Cloverdale! Forest Hill! Mountains east of San Diego!! Generally withPinus ponderosain groves, occupying the damper localities.3.Pinus ponderosa, Dougl. (Yellow Pine.)Russian River Valley! south of Clear Lake! Geysers! Auburn and Forest Hill! San José Valley! Blue Mountains!! (Mr. Dunn) Rocky Mountains!! New Mexico!!4.Pinus insignis. Dougl. (Monterey Pine.)Monterey! Carmelo Valley!This species covers many thousand acres of land near and by Monterey and Carmelo, forming quite an extensive forest along the coast between these two places. Height, sixty to one hundred feet, and one to three feet diameter; outline very irregular, consisting often of only a few rigid spreading branches; foliage dense and of a vivid green color; cones persistent, often from ten to nineteen whorls; bark very thick and rimose. Wood extremely resinous and rather coarse-grained; excellent for street planks, bridges, and floors. At present it is no more in the market as lumber; the good timber has been all cut, and the saw-mill removed.Considering that there is, besides this species, onlyPinus muricatagrowing in that forest, which could not be confounded with the species in question—it is certainly most singular to meet with so many synonyms for it.Pinus radiata, Don.;Pinus SinclairiiandPinus tuberculata, provided this last should not prove to be a good species. It is the more astonishing since trees and cones are of great conformity throughout the entire forest.5.Pinus tuberculata, Don.Santa Cruz! Ukiah! Oakland hills! Forest Hill! Eureka!!In all these localities, it is a small tree, from twenty to thirty feet high, and from six to fourteen inches in diameter. It retains its lowest branches, which spread generally very much, often horizontally. The foliage seems to me less dense and less vivid-green, than that of the preceding. Young trees raised here, side by side, show the same differential characters. The cones from all these different localities are very uniform, and differ essentially from those ofPinus insignisat Monterey. The seeds, however, resemble each other very much. Both species grow near the coast, but on different soil.Pinus insignis, on a soil produced by the disintegration of a bituminous slate and granite;Pinus tuberculata, in all the above-mentioned localities, on a soil derived frommetamorphosed sandstone. Should these two species be definitely united, after a thorough investigation, they would afford a most striking example of the influence of a different soil. It is certainly singular to find such a well-characterized form restricted to one locality only. This fact, however, would not stand isolated with us here;Abies bracteata, we find similarly confined to one locality only in California. Isolation is more or less a characteristic feature with all our trees, and there is probably no country where the influences of soil, climate, and exposition are so well and abruptly marked and unmistakably defined.6.Pinus muricata, Don.Monterey! Mendocino City!In a moist depression at Monterey, I found a small group of this species, averaging about fifteen feet in height, and five to six inches in diameter. Bark reddish and nearly smooth; branches almost at a right angle with the main axis and generally from five to seven in a whorl; leaves of a darker vivid green, and more succulent and longer, than those ofPinus insignis, of which there were trees of the same size by the side of it; cones from three to seven, in a whorl very much aggregated and clustered. I counted seventeen whorls on a tree fifteen feet high. The lower portion of the trunk was clad with dead leaves.At the same distance (about two miles) from the ocean, and scarcely a mile from the above-mentioned depression, I found another group (mixed withCupressus macrocarpa) in a deeper but drier locality. Here the tree was altogether of a different aspect, inferior in all its parts. This very transition suggested strongly, that this pine and the one previously seen on the plains near Mendocino City, on a similar soil, might be of the same species.Near Mendocino City, on the so-called plains, I found in great abundance a small pine tree, which I refer for the present to this species.Height, five to twenty feet, but the greater number averaged only from five to fifteen feet. Only one tree which I noticed which was fifty-five inches in circumference, and twenty to twenty-five feet in height. It had a flattish top with the branches very much imbricated and so completely covered with cones, that it was really difficult to discover its foliage. But this tree was very exceptional, compared with the mass of little trees covering the plains. These had in general upright branches with numerous and slender branchlets; leaves shorter, denser, and of a darker green thanPinus contorta? which grows with it and is a larger tree altogether; bark reddish, very thin, exhaling a strong resinous odor, and but slightly rimose; cones two to four inches long (curved when long) and scarcely an inch thick, mostly in pairs, but sometimes in threes, reflexed. I counted fifteen sets of cones on a tree fifteen feet high.7.Pinus contorta, Dougl.?Head of Tomales Bay! Mendocino City!Its manner of growth resembles that ofPinus insignisvery much. It attains the same height, has the same irregular spreading branches, the same thick rimose bark and very resinous wood. The leaves are invariably in pairs and slightly silvery on the lower surface. The cones are scarcely two inches long with mostly reflex pedicles (umbo) on the slightly gibbous side and persistent for a great number of years.From the River Albin to Mendocino City, it grows quite near the coast on a fertile and undulating plain, gently descending towards the ocean. At Mendocino City I found it to extend all over the plains about eight miles eastward.Whether this species is identical withPinus contortaor not I am unable to decide. Observations made by Mr. Geo. Wm. Dunn, on his recent travels through the Blue and Siskiyou mountains, have rather a tendency to show thatPinus contortais altogether a different tree. I can state, however, most positively that this species cannot be confounded withPinus muricata. Both species are two-leaved, but in every other respect they differ widely. The object of these remarks is only to point out the different species, met in my travels, and not to decide which name should have precedence. Murray’s discussion on the distribution of our Pines, in his “Notes on California Trees,” has not “struck” me as being so very correct. Endlicher, in his Synopsis Coniferarum, makesPinus muricataa Taeda, which is also incorrect; it is a true Pinaster. It remains to decide only, whether the species at Mendocino City isP. contorta, orP. Murrayana, Balf.8.Libocedrus decurrens, Torr. (California White Cedar.)Forest Hill! (forming quite a large woods there). Rancheria Creek! Mendocino County. East of Salinas River, Monterey County. Dr. Canfield. East of San Diego!!On the banks of Rancheria Creek, in the south-western part of Mendocino County, I found a small colony of this handsome tree. The largest were about forty to sixty feet high and two to three feet in diameter. Judging from the young after-growth, the tree seems likely to spread. I was informed that this is the only place in the county where it is to be found. In the latter part of September (1865) the tree had its aments strongly developed. Cones decidedly pendulous.9.Cupressus macrocarpa, Hartw. (Monterey Cypress.)Monterey! Tamal Pais (2,700 feet)! Mendocino City! and south-east of Clear Lake!This species seems to be extremely variable. At Monterey, about two miles from the coast, I saw, upon exposed granite rocks, but slightly disintegrated, specimens only six inches high, bearing perfect cones. Going westward, at the same distance from the ocean, I found specimens in a depression associated withPinus muricata, from ten to fifteen feet high, full with cones; and extending my walk to Cypress Point, a distance of three to four miles, I was surprised to find a large grove of this species, containing mostly large trees of great beauty and perfection. The average height may be from forty to sixty feet, and as they were (right at the point) almost all alike in thickness, I measured but three, finding their circumference to be one hundred and nineteen, one hundred and four, and one hundred and twenty inches, about four feet above the ground. At this point these trees are almost daily enveloped in a dense fog. Their branches are very densely imbricated and depressed, retaining the moisture to such an extent that the thick clusters of cones are quite mouldy. Between the cones and little dense branchlets settles a great deal of rubbish, which is almost dripping wet. It is undoubtedly owing to this very fact that so many seeds of this species, collected there, prove abortive.Seeing so great a variation at Monterey, I do not hesitate to refer all specimens, seen at the other localities mentioned above, to this species at present.On the plain near Mendocino City, that species exhibited about the same gradations, although not so strikingly as at Monterey.10.Torreya Californica, Torr. (California Nutmeg.)Paper Mill! Marin County. Ukiah! Mendocino City! Forest Hill!Generally dispersed, only at Ukiah I found quite a group of this species. Wood valuable.11.Taxus brevifolia, Nutt. (California Yew-Tree.)Devil’s Cañon, near Forest Hill! A handsome tree, twenty to thirty feet high, with extremely slender and drooping branches. Dispersed but plenty.Wood valuable.12.Quercus agrifolia, Nées. (Live Oak.)Oakland! Banks of Sacramento River! Clear Lake! Russian River Valley! Anderson Valley! Monterey!Foliage extremely variable. On river banks and in expositions close to the coast, where it is almost daily enveloped in fogs, this species exhibits quite a uniformity; the figure ofQuercus oxyadeniain Sitgreaves’ Report represents this form of it very well. In the valleys of the interior the shape of the leaves of one and the same tree is very different. Some have entire margins, while others have them pretty deeply dentated, often one side is entire and the other dentate. Some trees occur of which the young shoots have the leaves “coarsely sinuate-toothed, or obliquely sinuate-toothed; teeth very sharply acute with a broad base, cuspidate-awned,” and thus agree with Dr. Kellogg’sQuercus Morehus—while the older branches have much smaller and entire leaves. In Anderson Valley I saw several trees whose entire foliage agrees admirably with Dr. Kellogg’s. Had I not seen that tree on the shore of Borax Lake exhibiting both forms, I should be inclined to call it a good species. The cups of the acorns of these trees have the scales long and loosely imbricated, and the acorn is almost entirely immerged; but this is also the case with those of some trees that have a far different foliage. Thus far I have not been able to find good, distinctive, reliable characters. There are transitions in all parts, even on the same tree. As the tree has the habit of growing in groups, one might suppose that trees of one group, at least, should show a uniformity in botanical characters; this is not so: just the very extremes may be found in one and the same group. This phenomenon I observed throughout the whole length of Anderson Valley, a distance of some eighteen miles. On dry gravelly hillsides in the interior this tree presents still another form:Quercus Wislizeni, Englm.The acorns ripen annually and differ also essentially in shape and size. Soil, climate, and exposition, offer in this case no satisfactory explanation for so great a variation in one species. Should it not be attributed to intrinsic peculiarities?13.Quercus Garryana, Hook. (White Oak.)On dry easterly hillsides and in valleys on a poor buff-colored clay. Santa Rosa Valley! Clear Lake! Searsville! Anderson Valley! San José Valley!Exposition and soil agree in all these localities.The bark of this tree is rather thin, whitish, and less coarsely rimose than any other of the Californian oaks. It is always a flat-topped, middle-sized tree, apparently of a very slow, almost stunted, growth. The whitish bark of trunk and branches, the glaucous foliage, and the light-green color of the acorns, which it yields, however, quite sparingly, give this tree, compared with other oaks especially, quite a pale and hoary appearance.Farmers consider the fine-grained wood of this oak very valuable for many farming implements. It ranks highest among our oaks.14.Quercus Douglasii, Hook. (Pale Oak.)Anderson Valley!The general aspect and habit of this tree resembles very much that ofQuercus lobata, with which it grows in the low, flat portions of Anderson Valley. Its branchlets, however, are short, rigid, and erect, while those ofQu. lobataare mostly drooping. In fall, when laden with acorns, it presents a very striking difference by having its rather pale acorns densely aggregated and clustered at the extremities of the branchlets, resting, as it were, on the dark-green leaves. At a distance it may be mistaken for a full-bearing apple tree. It increases rapidly in number in Anderson Valley from south to north, outnumbering almost every other oak at the lower end of the valley. Its wood ranks next to that ofQuercus Douglasii.15.Quercus lobata, Nées. (Burr-Oak.)The most common and largest oak in all the valleys of the interior of California. Thus far, I never found it on a hillside. It is this mighty oak, with its peculiar, gracefully-drooping branchlets, that gives character to the landscape of the Californian valleys. It is especially noted for its very long acorns; but they do not always attain that large size, and are never so conspicuously arranged as those ofQu. Garryana; they are usually in pairs. It may also be stated that this tree forms, on an average, about the longest trunk of Californian foliaceous trees. The acorns of this species form a principal part of the food of the Indians. On the Coast Range they seem to give, however, preference to those ofQuercus Sonomensis. The wood ranks next to that of the preceding species.These above-mentioned three species of oaks, belonging to the section of white oaks, are surely distinct. I met with no transitions thus far. They may be distinguished at a distance; every farmer distinguishes them, for there is quite a difference in the quality of the wood.16.Quercus Sonomensis, Benth. (Black Oak.)San Diego!! Anderson Valley! Auburn!Eastern and northern hillsides in the Coast Ranges. It also occupies the more easterly-situated flats, among the redwoods, wherever they are too dry for redwood. Very seldom it is found in the valley; and when found, it occupies that portion of it which is adjacent to the hillsides, where there is generally a gravelly soil. It is always a middle-sized tree, having mostly numerous erect branches arranged like those ofAcer saccharinum. In fall it sheds its leaves,which become buff-colored, before any other of our deciduous oaks. The wood of this tree is of a poor quality; used for fuel only.17.Quercus chrysolepis, Liebm. (Drooping Live Oak.)The most rare of all our oaks; it bears acorns but seldom, and even then very sparingly. I have not been able to satisfy myself whether they are biannual or not, but I am rather inclined to believe they are. Northern slopes near Cloverdale! in Anderson Valley! and near Forest Hill! Tree 30-40 feet high, with a rather smooth whitish bark, and mostly long, slender, drooping branches; evergreen. Of the quality of its wood I could not learn anything from settlers. The tree being rare, and occupying always moist slopes along gulches, it is not often cut down.18.Quercus densiflora, Hook. (Chestnut Oak.)Along the Coast Range, associated with the redwood, increasing northwards; from Santa Cruz to Mendocino City, at least, it occurs only in or close by the redwoods. This tree attains rather a large height in dense woods, and is then but sparingly branched. Leaves and acorns very considerable. Its wood is absolutely useless; it is very coarse grained, and like the redwood wet like a sponge when cut; it is extremely perishable. At Mendocino City log-men call it Water Oak.19.Castanea chrysophylla, Dougl. (Chestnut.)On the Oakland hills this species is but 3-6 feet high; blooms about the fourth of July, like the EasternCastanea vesca, and bears perfect fruit. On the so-called plains at Mendocino City, however, it is a large tree, averaging from 50-125 feet in height, and 2-3 feet in diameter. Those trees were completely covered with blossoms on the twenty-third of September, 1865; settlers say they never found its fruit. Here, on the Oakland hills, it grows only on the outcropping of a white friable slate, destitute of all vegetable remains; at the Mendocino plains it is found to grow on a cemented gravel, upon which the water rests for some months after the rainy season. The supply of an aerial moisture during the dry season is in favor of the Oakland hills, judging by the lichenose vegetation of the two localities.20.Sequoia sempervirens, Endl. (Redwood.)This mighty tree belongs exclusively to the foggy regions of the Coast Ranges and the underlying metamorphic sandstone, for wherever either of these conditions is wanting, this tree does not exist. From the northern boundary line of the State down to the head of Tomales Bay it forms a continual forest, increasing in width northward. At Tomales Bay the chain is interrupted by a small bed of lime-rock. The interruption extending from the lower foot-hills of Tamalpais down to Belmont, is undoubtedly owing to the lowness of the hills. A connecting link is found, however, on the Oakland hills. That grove of redwoods, now almost entirely destroyed, affords the strongest evidences of the dependency of that species on the prevalence of heavy mists. From Belmont to a few miles below Santa Cruz is another narrow continuous chain, occupying mainly the leesides of the most western ranges and the deeper gulches eastward.From near the mouth of Salinas River to the head of Carmelo Valley, another long interruption is caused by a bituminous slate. The absence of redwood in this long interval can hardly be ascribed to any other cause, for it is known that Monterey and the adjacent regions are subject to heavier fogs than Santa Cruz.Pinus insignisandCupressus macrocarpaoccupy here those portions naturally belonging to the redwood andTsuga Douglasii. Further south, from the head of Carmelo Valley to San Luis Obispo, the most southern limit, redwood occurs but sparingly, forming nowhere extensive groves. Associated with the redwood we findTsuga Douglasii, a tree of a wide range,Torreya Californica,Arbutus Menziesii,Quercus densiflora, and in Mendocino CountyAbies grandisDougl. There are also some shrubs and herbaceous plants truly characteristic to them, the shrubs increasing as underwood northward, belong mostly to the Ericaceous family. It is a noteworthy fact that the arborescent growth of the leeside of the first range of hills generally consists, almost exclusively, ofTsuga Douglasii, and that this tree forms the outskirt east and particularly westward. In Mendocino CountyAbies grandisunites with it for the same cause; there both trees form a dense belt, facing the ocean, and are encroaching fast on the redwood. In fact, the western portion of those redwoods show this encroachment most strikingly by a total absence of young redwood, and a dense, almost impenetrable, undergrowth of the two-mentioned species. The order of things is, however, reversed wherever the redwood has been cut. Its roots are imperishable, and as soon as the tree is cut they sprout and cover the soil rapidly to the exclusion of every other species—none being of so rapid a growth. The indestructibility of the roots prevents the clearing of such land; even large trunks cut down cover themselves, within two or three years, so completely with sprouts that they are hardly seen. The entire after growth now found on the Oakland hills, is owing solely to the indestructibility of its roots and stumps. The tenacity of life in this species, which is rather of rare occurrence in coniferous trees, shows itself also in the resistance it offers to fire, so frequent in those woods. Trees that have been bereft completely of their branches by fire, covered themselves in a few years entirely with young sprouts, giving the trunks the appearance of a pillar, or remind one of those old trunks covered withRhus toxicodendronin the East. Fire is destructive to the young trees only; after they have obtained a thickness of two or three feet they are not liable to perish.Another great beneficial feature in this species is the great power it possesses in condensing fogs and mists. A heavy fog is always turned into a rain, wetting the soil and supplying springs with water during the dry season. Springs in and near the redwoods are never in want of a good supply of water, and crops on the Coast Ranges are not liable to fail. The year of 1864 has proved my assertion beyond doubt; this fact is generally known—a great deal of land has been taken up since. It is my firm conviction that if the redwoods are destroyed—and they necessarily will be, if not protected by a wise action of our Government—California will become a desert, in the true sense of the word. In their safety depends the future welfare of the State; they are our safeguard. It remains to be seen whether we shall be benefited or not by the horribleexperience such countries as Asia Minor, Greece, Spain, and France have made, by having barbarously destroyed their woods and forests. But with us here it is even of a more serious nature; wise governments would be able to replace them in those countries, but no power on earth can restore the woods of California when once completely destroyed!
BY HENRY N. BOLANDER.
Note.—Localities given with two !! I have not visited myself. I would also further remark that I am by no means sure of having correctly determined the two oaks—Quercus DouglasiiandGarryana.
It may not be altogether amiss to offer some observations on the distribution and value, as specimens, of some of our trees which I have met with on my various trips over a portion of this State.
Invariably disposed over south-hillsides of the interior, occupying the driest expositions—Mount Diablo! Russian River Valley! Geysers! Auburn and Forest Hill! San José Valley! Near Mission San Antonio!! Mountains east of San Diego!!
As to its value there are a great many contradictory assertions made by farmers; some assert it yields an excellent wood for yokes and similar objects, while others denounce it as entirely useless.
Pine Mountains near Geysers! Near Cloverdale! Forest Hill! Mountains east of San Diego!! Generally withPinus ponderosain groves, occupying the damper localities.
Russian River Valley! south of Clear Lake! Geysers! Auburn and Forest Hill! San José Valley! Blue Mountains!! (Mr. Dunn) Rocky Mountains!! New Mexico!!
Monterey! Carmelo Valley!
This species covers many thousand acres of land near and by Monterey and Carmelo, forming quite an extensive forest along the coast between these two places. Height, sixty to one hundred feet, and one to three feet diameter; outline very irregular, consisting often of only a few rigid spreading branches; foliage dense and of a vivid green color; cones persistent, often from ten to nineteen whorls; bark very thick and rimose. Wood extremely resinous and rather coarse-grained; excellent for street planks, bridges, and floors. At present it is no more in the market as lumber; the good timber has been all cut, and the saw-mill removed.
Considering that there is, besides this species, onlyPinus muricatagrowing in that forest, which could not be confounded with the species in question—it is certainly most singular to meet with so many synonyms for it.Pinus radiata, Don.;Pinus SinclairiiandPinus tuberculata, provided this last should not prove to be a good species. It is the more astonishing since trees and cones are of great conformity throughout the entire forest.
Santa Cruz! Ukiah! Oakland hills! Forest Hill! Eureka!!
In all these localities, it is a small tree, from twenty to thirty feet high, and from six to fourteen inches in diameter. It retains its lowest branches, which spread generally very much, often horizontally. The foliage seems to me less dense and less vivid-green, than that of the preceding. Young trees raised here, side by side, show the same differential characters. The cones from all these different localities are very uniform, and differ essentially from those ofPinus insignisat Monterey. The seeds, however, resemble each other very much. Both species grow near the coast, but on different soil.Pinus insignis, on a soil produced by the disintegration of a bituminous slate and granite;Pinus tuberculata, in all the above-mentioned localities, on a soil derived frommetamorphosed sandstone. Should these two species be definitely united, after a thorough investigation, they would afford a most striking example of the influence of a different soil. It is certainly singular to find such a well-characterized form restricted to one locality only. This fact, however, would not stand isolated with us here;Abies bracteata, we find similarly confined to one locality only in California. Isolation is more or less a characteristic feature with all our trees, and there is probably no country where the influences of soil, climate, and exposition are so well and abruptly marked and unmistakably defined.
Monterey! Mendocino City!
In a moist depression at Monterey, I found a small group of this species, averaging about fifteen feet in height, and five to six inches in diameter. Bark reddish and nearly smooth; branches almost at a right angle with the main axis and generally from five to seven in a whorl; leaves of a darker vivid green, and more succulent and longer, than those ofPinus insignis, of which there were trees of the same size by the side of it; cones from three to seven, in a whorl very much aggregated and clustered. I counted seventeen whorls on a tree fifteen feet high. The lower portion of the trunk was clad with dead leaves.
At the same distance (about two miles) from the ocean, and scarcely a mile from the above-mentioned depression, I found another group (mixed withCupressus macrocarpa) in a deeper but drier locality. Here the tree was altogether of a different aspect, inferior in all its parts. This very transition suggested strongly, that this pine and the one previously seen on the plains near Mendocino City, on a similar soil, might be of the same species.
Near Mendocino City, on the so-called plains, I found in great abundance a small pine tree, which I refer for the present to this species.
Height, five to twenty feet, but the greater number averaged only from five to fifteen feet. Only one tree which I noticed which was fifty-five inches in circumference, and twenty to twenty-five feet in height. It had a flattish top with the branches very much imbricated and so completely covered with cones, that it was really difficult to discover its foliage. But this tree was very exceptional, compared with the mass of little trees covering the plains. These had in general upright branches with numerous and slender branchlets; leaves shorter, denser, and of a darker green thanPinus contorta? which grows with it and is a larger tree altogether; bark reddish, very thin, exhaling a strong resinous odor, and but slightly rimose; cones two to four inches long (curved when long) and scarcely an inch thick, mostly in pairs, but sometimes in threes, reflexed. I counted fifteen sets of cones on a tree fifteen feet high.
Head of Tomales Bay! Mendocino City!
Its manner of growth resembles that ofPinus insignisvery much. It attains the same height, has the same irregular spreading branches, the same thick rimose bark and very resinous wood. The leaves are invariably in pairs and slightly silvery on the lower surface. The cones are scarcely two inches long with mostly reflex pedicles (umbo) on the slightly gibbous side and persistent for a great number of years.
From the River Albin to Mendocino City, it grows quite near the coast on a fertile and undulating plain, gently descending towards the ocean. At Mendocino City I found it to extend all over the plains about eight miles eastward.
Whether this species is identical withPinus contortaor not I am unable to decide. Observations made by Mr. Geo. Wm. Dunn, on his recent travels through the Blue and Siskiyou mountains, have rather a tendency to show thatPinus contortais altogether a different tree. I can state, however, most positively that this species cannot be confounded withPinus muricata. Both species are two-leaved, but in every other respect they differ widely. The object of these remarks is only to point out the different species, met in my travels, and not to decide which name should have precedence. Murray’s discussion on the distribution of our Pines, in his “Notes on California Trees,” has not “struck” me as being so very correct. Endlicher, in his Synopsis Coniferarum, makesPinus muricataa Taeda, which is also incorrect; it is a true Pinaster. It remains to decide only, whether the species at Mendocino City isP. contorta, orP. Murrayana, Balf.
Forest Hill! (forming quite a large woods there). Rancheria Creek! Mendocino County. East of Salinas River, Monterey County. Dr. Canfield. East of San Diego!!
On the banks of Rancheria Creek, in the south-western part of Mendocino County, I found a small colony of this handsome tree. The largest were about forty to sixty feet high and two to three feet in diameter. Judging from the young after-growth, the tree seems likely to spread. I was informed that this is the only place in the county where it is to be found. In the latter part of September (1865) the tree had its aments strongly developed. Cones decidedly pendulous.
Monterey! Tamal Pais (2,700 feet)! Mendocino City! and south-east of Clear Lake!
This species seems to be extremely variable. At Monterey, about two miles from the coast, I saw, upon exposed granite rocks, but slightly disintegrated, specimens only six inches high, bearing perfect cones. Going westward, at the same distance from the ocean, I found specimens in a depression associated withPinus muricata, from ten to fifteen feet high, full with cones; and extending my walk to Cypress Point, a distance of three to four miles, I was surprised to find a large grove of this species, containing mostly large trees of great beauty and perfection. The average height may be from forty to sixty feet, and as they were (right at the point) almost all alike in thickness, I measured but three, finding their circumference to be one hundred and nineteen, one hundred and four, and one hundred and twenty inches, about four feet above the ground. At this point these trees are almost daily enveloped in a dense fog. Their branches are very densely imbricated and depressed, retaining the moisture to such an extent that the thick clusters of cones are quite mouldy. Between the cones and little dense branchlets settles a great deal of rubbish, which is almost dripping wet. It is undoubtedly owing to this very fact that so many seeds of this species, collected there, prove abortive.
Seeing so great a variation at Monterey, I do not hesitate to refer all specimens, seen at the other localities mentioned above, to this species at present.
On the plain near Mendocino City, that species exhibited about the same gradations, although not so strikingly as at Monterey.
Paper Mill! Marin County. Ukiah! Mendocino City! Forest Hill!
Generally dispersed, only at Ukiah I found quite a group of this species. Wood valuable.
Devil’s Cañon, near Forest Hill! A handsome tree, twenty to thirty feet high, with extremely slender and drooping branches. Dispersed but plenty.
Wood valuable.
Oakland! Banks of Sacramento River! Clear Lake! Russian River Valley! Anderson Valley! Monterey!
Foliage extremely variable. On river banks and in expositions close to the coast, where it is almost daily enveloped in fogs, this species exhibits quite a uniformity; the figure ofQuercus oxyadeniain Sitgreaves’ Report represents this form of it very well. In the valleys of the interior the shape of the leaves of one and the same tree is very different. Some have entire margins, while others have them pretty deeply dentated, often one side is entire and the other dentate. Some trees occur of which the young shoots have the leaves “coarsely sinuate-toothed, or obliquely sinuate-toothed; teeth very sharply acute with a broad base, cuspidate-awned,” and thus agree with Dr. Kellogg’sQuercus Morehus—while the older branches have much smaller and entire leaves. In Anderson Valley I saw several trees whose entire foliage agrees admirably with Dr. Kellogg’s. Had I not seen that tree on the shore of Borax Lake exhibiting both forms, I should be inclined to call it a good species. The cups of the acorns of these trees have the scales long and loosely imbricated, and the acorn is almost entirely immerged; but this is also the case with those of some trees that have a far different foliage. Thus far I have not been able to find good, distinctive, reliable characters. There are transitions in all parts, even on the same tree. As the tree has the habit of growing in groups, one might suppose that trees of one group, at least, should show a uniformity in botanical characters; this is not so: just the very extremes may be found in one and the same group. This phenomenon I observed throughout the whole length of Anderson Valley, a distance of some eighteen miles. On dry gravelly hillsides in the interior this tree presents still another form:Quercus Wislizeni, Englm.
The acorns ripen annually and differ also essentially in shape and size. Soil, climate, and exposition, offer in this case no satisfactory explanation for so great a variation in one species. Should it not be attributed to intrinsic peculiarities?
On dry easterly hillsides and in valleys on a poor buff-colored clay. Santa Rosa Valley! Clear Lake! Searsville! Anderson Valley! San José Valley!
Exposition and soil agree in all these localities.
The bark of this tree is rather thin, whitish, and less coarsely rimose than any other of the Californian oaks. It is always a flat-topped, middle-sized tree, apparently of a very slow, almost stunted, growth. The whitish bark of trunk and branches, the glaucous foliage, and the light-green color of the acorns, which it yields, however, quite sparingly, give this tree, compared with other oaks especially, quite a pale and hoary appearance.
Farmers consider the fine-grained wood of this oak very valuable for many farming implements. It ranks highest among our oaks.
Anderson Valley!
The general aspect and habit of this tree resembles very much that ofQuercus lobata, with which it grows in the low, flat portions of Anderson Valley. Its branchlets, however, are short, rigid, and erect, while those ofQu. lobataare mostly drooping. In fall, when laden with acorns, it presents a very striking difference by having its rather pale acorns densely aggregated and clustered at the extremities of the branchlets, resting, as it were, on the dark-green leaves. At a distance it may be mistaken for a full-bearing apple tree. It increases rapidly in number in Anderson Valley from south to north, outnumbering almost every other oak at the lower end of the valley. Its wood ranks next to that ofQuercus Douglasii.
The most common and largest oak in all the valleys of the interior of California. Thus far, I never found it on a hillside. It is this mighty oak, with its peculiar, gracefully-drooping branchlets, that gives character to the landscape of the Californian valleys. It is especially noted for its very long acorns; but they do not always attain that large size, and are never so conspicuously arranged as those ofQu. Garryana; they are usually in pairs. It may also be stated that this tree forms, on an average, about the longest trunk of Californian foliaceous trees. The acorns of this species form a principal part of the food of the Indians. On the Coast Range they seem to give, however, preference to those ofQuercus Sonomensis. The wood ranks next to that of the preceding species.
These above-mentioned three species of oaks, belonging to the section of white oaks, are surely distinct. I met with no transitions thus far. They may be distinguished at a distance; every farmer distinguishes them, for there is quite a difference in the quality of the wood.
San Diego!! Anderson Valley! Auburn!
Eastern and northern hillsides in the Coast Ranges. It also occupies the more easterly-situated flats, among the redwoods, wherever they are too dry for redwood. Very seldom it is found in the valley; and when found, it occupies that portion of it which is adjacent to the hillsides, where there is generally a gravelly soil. It is always a middle-sized tree, having mostly numerous erect branches arranged like those ofAcer saccharinum. In fall it sheds its leaves,which become buff-colored, before any other of our deciduous oaks. The wood of this tree is of a poor quality; used for fuel only.
The most rare of all our oaks; it bears acorns but seldom, and even then very sparingly. I have not been able to satisfy myself whether they are biannual or not, but I am rather inclined to believe they are. Northern slopes near Cloverdale! in Anderson Valley! and near Forest Hill! Tree 30-40 feet high, with a rather smooth whitish bark, and mostly long, slender, drooping branches; evergreen. Of the quality of its wood I could not learn anything from settlers. The tree being rare, and occupying always moist slopes along gulches, it is not often cut down.
Along the Coast Range, associated with the redwood, increasing northwards; from Santa Cruz to Mendocino City, at least, it occurs only in or close by the redwoods. This tree attains rather a large height in dense woods, and is then but sparingly branched. Leaves and acorns very considerable. Its wood is absolutely useless; it is very coarse grained, and like the redwood wet like a sponge when cut; it is extremely perishable. At Mendocino City log-men call it Water Oak.
On the Oakland hills this species is but 3-6 feet high; blooms about the fourth of July, like the EasternCastanea vesca, and bears perfect fruit. On the so-called plains at Mendocino City, however, it is a large tree, averaging from 50-125 feet in height, and 2-3 feet in diameter. Those trees were completely covered with blossoms on the twenty-third of September, 1865; settlers say they never found its fruit. Here, on the Oakland hills, it grows only on the outcropping of a white friable slate, destitute of all vegetable remains; at the Mendocino plains it is found to grow on a cemented gravel, upon which the water rests for some months after the rainy season. The supply of an aerial moisture during the dry season is in favor of the Oakland hills, judging by the lichenose vegetation of the two localities.
This mighty tree belongs exclusively to the foggy regions of the Coast Ranges and the underlying metamorphic sandstone, for wherever either of these conditions is wanting, this tree does not exist. From the northern boundary line of the State down to the head of Tomales Bay it forms a continual forest, increasing in width northward. At Tomales Bay the chain is interrupted by a small bed of lime-rock. The interruption extending from the lower foot-hills of Tamalpais down to Belmont, is undoubtedly owing to the lowness of the hills. A connecting link is found, however, on the Oakland hills. That grove of redwoods, now almost entirely destroyed, affords the strongest evidences of the dependency of that species on the prevalence of heavy mists. From Belmont to a few miles below Santa Cruz is another narrow continuous chain, occupying mainly the leesides of the most western ranges and the deeper gulches eastward.From near the mouth of Salinas River to the head of Carmelo Valley, another long interruption is caused by a bituminous slate. The absence of redwood in this long interval can hardly be ascribed to any other cause, for it is known that Monterey and the adjacent regions are subject to heavier fogs than Santa Cruz.Pinus insignisandCupressus macrocarpaoccupy here those portions naturally belonging to the redwood andTsuga Douglasii. Further south, from the head of Carmelo Valley to San Luis Obispo, the most southern limit, redwood occurs but sparingly, forming nowhere extensive groves. Associated with the redwood we findTsuga Douglasii, a tree of a wide range,Torreya Californica,Arbutus Menziesii,Quercus densiflora, and in Mendocino CountyAbies grandisDougl. There are also some shrubs and herbaceous plants truly characteristic to them, the shrubs increasing as underwood northward, belong mostly to the Ericaceous family. It is a noteworthy fact that the arborescent growth of the leeside of the first range of hills generally consists, almost exclusively, ofTsuga Douglasii, and that this tree forms the outskirt east and particularly westward. In Mendocino CountyAbies grandisunites with it for the same cause; there both trees form a dense belt, facing the ocean, and are encroaching fast on the redwood. In fact, the western portion of those redwoods show this encroachment most strikingly by a total absence of young redwood, and a dense, almost impenetrable, undergrowth of the two-mentioned species. The order of things is, however, reversed wherever the redwood has been cut. Its roots are imperishable, and as soon as the tree is cut they sprout and cover the soil rapidly to the exclusion of every other species—none being of so rapid a growth. The indestructibility of the roots prevents the clearing of such land; even large trunks cut down cover themselves, within two or three years, so completely with sprouts that they are hardly seen. The entire after growth now found on the Oakland hills, is owing solely to the indestructibility of its roots and stumps. The tenacity of life in this species, which is rather of rare occurrence in coniferous trees, shows itself also in the resistance it offers to fire, so frequent in those woods. Trees that have been bereft completely of their branches by fire, covered themselves in a few years entirely with young sprouts, giving the trunks the appearance of a pillar, or remind one of those old trunks covered withRhus toxicodendronin the East. Fire is destructive to the young trees only; after they have obtained a thickness of two or three feet they are not liable to perish.
Another great beneficial feature in this species is the great power it possesses in condensing fogs and mists. A heavy fog is always turned into a rain, wetting the soil and supplying springs with water during the dry season. Springs in and near the redwoods are never in want of a good supply of water, and crops on the Coast Ranges are not liable to fail. The year of 1864 has proved my assertion beyond doubt; this fact is generally known—a great deal of land has been taken up since. It is my firm conviction that if the redwoods are destroyed—and they necessarily will be, if not protected by a wise action of our Government—California will become a desert, in the true sense of the word. In their safety depends the future welfare of the State; they are our safeguard. It remains to be seen whether we shall be benefited or not by the horribleexperience such countries as Asia Minor, Greece, Spain, and France have made, by having barbarously destroyed their woods and forests. But with us here it is even of a more serious nature; wise governments would be able to replace them in those countries, but no power on earth can restore the woods of California when once completely destroyed!
Dr. Kellogg in the chair.
Eight members present.
Donations to the Cabinet: Specimen ofPinus ponderosa,Abies Douglasii,Taxus brevifolia,Larix occidentalis,Pteris aquilina, andAbies Menziesii; presented by Mr. Dunn.
President in the chair.
Seven members present, and Mr. W. H. Dall as a visitor.
Major Edward Preiss and Count Oswald Thun were elected Corresponding Members.
Mr. Bolander made some remarks on a wild California Grape (Vitis Californica) growing near Oakland.
Professor Whitney gave an account of the explorations of Professor Pumpelly in Japan and China. An elaborate memoir, by this gentleman, containing a full account of his very important geological discoveries, will appear in the second volume of the Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences.
Mr. Dall made some observations on the progress of the Russian American Overland Telegraph Expedition, and gave an interesting description of the region which had been traversed by the party.
Dr. Kellogg in the chair.
Six members present.
Dr. Ferdinand Stoliczka, Palæontologist to the Geological Survey of India, was elected a Corresponding Member.
Donations to the Cabinet: One box of shells and two of fishes, collected at Tahiti, by Mr. Andrew Garrett.
The following papers were presented.
Notice of a peculiar Astringent Gum or Coloring Substance in the Cones of the Sequoia gigantea.BY WILLIAM P. BLAKE.I am not aware that any notice has yet been taken by scientific chemists of a peculiar substance, apparently a gum, which accompanies the seeds of the great trees, and may be shaken out of the dried cones. About twenty cones yielded me an ounce of the material. It does not adhere to either the seeds or the cone, but appears to have shrunk from both in drying. It falls out in loose broken grains with brilliant conchoidal fractured surfaces, and looks a little like dried blood. The color is purplish-red, nearly black by reflected light, and a brilliant carmine-red by transmitted.The taste is strongly astringent, and suggests tannin; it is somewhat bitter, and is similar also to that of very strong black tea. It softens and becomes gummy between the teeth. It dissolves completely in water and in ordinary alcohol, giving a brilliant claret-colored solution which gradually darkens by exposure to the air. The addition of carbonate of soda darkens the solution and lime-water turns it black, giving a black scaly precipitate. Dilute sulphuric acid reddens the solution and causes a red precipitate.It is in many respects similar to thekinoof the shops, but has a brighter colored powder and streaks. The kino that I have seen has a brownish-red streak; this substance gives a purplish-red.The reactions with alkalies and acids in respect to color are similar to those of green redwood boards, which may be stained as dark as rosewood by alkalies and red by acids.This substance may be found to have some peculiar value in pharmacy, or as a coloring matter for tinctures or wine. I hope that this notice will induce a thorough investigation of its nature and properties. If it proves to be new, I suggest that it shall be known asSequonin.
BY WILLIAM P. BLAKE.
I am not aware that any notice has yet been taken by scientific chemists of a peculiar substance, apparently a gum, which accompanies the seeds of the great trees, and may be shaken out of the dried cones. About twenty cones yielded me an ounce of the material. It does not adhere to either the seeds or the cone, but appears to have shrunk from both in drying. It falls out in loose broken grains with brilliant conchoidal fractured surfaces, and looks a little like dried blood. The color is purplish-red, nearly black by reflected light, and a brilliant carmine-red by transmitted.
The taste is strongly astringent, and suggests tannin; it is somewhat bitter, and is similar also to that of very strong black tea. It softens and becomes gummy between the teeth. It dissolves completely in water and in ordinary alcohol, giving a brilliant claret-colored solution which gradually darkens by exposure to the air. The addition of carbonate of soda darkens the solution and lime-water turns it black, giving a black scaly precipitate. Dilute sulphuric acid reddens the solution and causes a red precipitate.
It is in many respects similar to thekinoof the shops, but has a brighter colored powder and streaks. The kino that I have seen has a brownish-red streak; this substance gives a purplish-red.
The reactions with alkalies and acids in respect to color are similar to those of green redwood boards, which may be stained as dark as rosewood by alkalies and red by acids.
This substance may be found to have some peculiar value in pharmacy, or as a coloring matter for tinctures or wine. I hope that this notice will induce a thorough investigation of its nature and properties. If it proves to be new, I suggest that it shall be known asSequonin.
Ammonites in the Auriferous Slates of California.BY WILLIAM P. BLAKE.Ammonites occur in the gold-bearing slates of Bear Valley, Mariposa County, in addition to belemnites and other fossils already noted. The specimen I have seen is a cast, somewhat distorted by pressure, but apparently similar to the species from the slates on the American River, which I brought to the notice of the academy last year.
BY WILLIAM P. BLAKE.
Ammonites occur in the gold-bearing slates of Bear Valley, Mariposa County, in addition to belemnites and other fossils already noted. The specimen I have seen is a cast, somewhat distorted by pressure, but apparently similar to the species from the slates on the American River, which I brought to the notice of the academy last year.
President in the chair.
Twelve members present.
The Curator of Conchology and the Librarian made verbal reports.
The academy then proceeded to the election of officers for the year, and the following persons were chosen.
PRESIDENT.
LEANDER RANSOM.
VICE PRESIDENTS.
R. E. C. STEARNS.W. O. AYRES, M.D.
TREASURER.
SAMUEL HUBBARD.
RECORDING SEC’Y.
T. H. BLOOMER.
CORRESPONDING SEC’Y.
HENRY N. BOLANDER.
LIBRARIAN.
J. D. WHITNEY.
CURATORS.
COMMITTEE ON FINANCE.
Messrs. HUBBARD, STEARNS, and FISK.
COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION.
Messrs. WHITNEY, MINNS, and STEARNS.
Donations to the Library: American Journal of Science, September, 1865, from the editors. Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, Vol. VIII, Nos. 2-5. Journal de Conchyliogie, (3) V, 1, 2. Sea-Side Studies in Natural History, from Alex. Agassiz. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, 1864, Sheet 1. Astronomical and Meteorological Observations made at the U. S. Naval Observatory during the year 1863. Check List of the Fossils of California and Nevada, by W. M. Gabb.
The following biographical sketch of Thomas Bridges was read by Mr. Dall.
Memorial Sketch of Thomas Bridges, Esq., F.L.S., F.Z.S., and Member of the Cala. Acad. Sci.BY W. H. DALL, ACTING DIRECTOR SCI. CORPS, W. U. T. EX.Mr. Bridges was born at Lilly in Hertfordshire, England, on the twenty-second of May, 1807.At an early age he became interested in Natural History, and when about nineteen or twenty—having previously studied for some three years under Sir William Hooker, at Kew Gardens—he sailed for Valparaiso. He remained here or passed the time in some of the adjoining provinces, from 1827 to 1844, when he returned to England on a short visit. On again reaching South America, he undertook the explorations in Bolivia, so well known to naturalists, through their magnificent results. During the course of this journey, in June, 1845, he discovered and obtained seeds of the great South American Water Lily, theVictoria Regia, Lindley. Although the plant had previously been detected, to Mr. Bridges belonged the honor of first introducing it into the old world, by transporting seeds which subsequently germinated at Kew.In 1846, he returned to England, where for many months he was prostrated by severe illness contracted in his arduous explorations.In 1847, he was married to Miss Mary Benson, of Bristol, England, a niece of the eminent collector, the late Hugh Cuming. Soon after he proceeded again to Valparaiso.In 1851, he visited and explored the island of Juan Fernandez.In the report of Lieut. Herndon, U. S. N., on his explorations of the Amazon, he acknowledges his obligations to Mr. Bridges, for invaluable information furnished, in regard to the head-waters of that river.In 1855, he proceeded to Panama, remaining there some six months; and from thence to England, subsequently to France, and finally to California, where he arrived in November, 1856.About 1857, he went to British Columbia, and remained nearly two years, collecting and exploring. In the winter of 1858, his family, hitherto in Europe,rejoined him. Since then San Francisco has been his home, though travelling in many parts of California.In April, 1865, he undertook his ill-starred journey to Nicaragua. His explorations here were limited principally to the lake country, where he passed some five months exploring the dense and tangled jungles of the vicinity; ascending the volcanoes of Mombacho and Ometepec, and visiting Leon and Granada. In June, he met at San Juan del Sur, our well-known botanist, Dr. Torry, on his way to San Francisco. These two kindred spirits passed several pleasant days together.He left Nicaragua on the steamship Moses Taylor, Capt Blethen, on the third of September, 1865, apparently in perfect health. On the fifth, the effects of the insidious malaria of the country were evident. On the ninth, he died; being fifty-eight years old. On the seventeenth, the body arrived in San Francisco, and was afterwards interred at Lone Mountain Cemetery. He leaves a widow, two daughters, and three sons.Mr. Bridges was of a singularly retiring and modest disposition, and very few publications of his own remain to attest his devotion to Natural Science. But works in every branch of study, particularly of Professor Lindley, and Sir William Hooker, in the department of Botany, bear abundant evidence of his untiring industry and unusual success.That he died a martyr to his love for Natural History, there is no room for doubt; and his most appropriate memorials are the magnificent evergreens now adorning, through his agency, the groves and avenues of the old world.With all impartial naturalists, Mr. Bridges and such as he, “who bear the burden and heat of the day,” are entitled to honors; if not precisely of the same character as those due to the students who in their comfortable libraries work up the results of the collector, still to honors quite as high.
BY W. H. DALL, ACTING DIRECTOR SCI. CORPS, W. U. T. EX.
Mr. Bridges was born at Lilly in Hertfordshire, England, on the twenty-second of May, 1807.
At an early age he became interested in Natural History, and when about nineteen or twenty—having previously studied for some three years under Sir William Hooker, at Kew Gardens—he sailed for Valparaiso. He remained here or passed the time in some of the adjoining provinces, from 1827 to 1844, when he returned to England on a short visit. On again reaching South America, he undertook the explorations in Bolivia, so well known to naturalists, through their magnificent results. During the course of this journey, in June, 1845, he discovered and obtained seeds of the great South American Water Lily, theVictoria Regia, Lindley. Although the plant had previously been detected, to Mr. Bridges belonged the honor of first introducing it into the old world, by transporting seeds which subsequently germinated at Kew.
In 1846, he returned to England, where for many months he was prostrated by severe illness contracted in his arduous explorations.
In 1847, he was married to Miss Mary Benson, of Bristol, England, a niece of the eminent collector, the late Hugh Cuming. Soon after he proceeded again to Valparaiso.
In 1851, he visited and explored the island of Juan Fernandez.
In the report of Lieut. Herndon, U. S. N., on his explorations of the Amazon, he acknowledges his obligations to Mr. Bridges, for invaluable information furnished, in regard to the head-waters of that river.
In 1855, he proceeded to Panama, remaining there some six months; and from thence to England, subsequently to France, and finally to California, where he arrived in November, 1856.
About 1857, he went to British Columbia, and remained nearly two years, collecting and exploring. In the winter of 1858, his family, hitherto in Europe,rejoined him. Since then San Francisco has been his home, though travelling in many parts of California.
In April, 1865, he undertook his ill-starred journey to Nicaragua. His explorations here were limited principally to the lake country, where he passed some five months exploring the dense and tangled jungles of the vicinity; ascending the volcanoes of Mombacho and Ometepec, and visiting Leon and Granada. In June, he met at San Juan del Sur, our well-known botanist, Dr. Torry, on his way to San Francisco. These two kindred spirits passed several pleasant days together.
He left Nicaragua on the steamship Moses Taylor, Capt Blethen, on the third of September, 1865, apparently in perfect health. On the fifth, the effects of the insidious malaria of the country were evident. On the ninth, he died; being fifty-eight years old. On the seventeenth, the body arrived in San Francisco, and was afterwards interred at Lone Mountain Cemetery. He leaves a widow, two daughters, and three sons.
Mr. Bridges was of a singularly retiring and modest disposition, and very few publications of his own remain to attest his devotion to Natural Science. But works in every branch of study, particularly of Professor Lindley, and Sir William Hooker, in the department of Botany, bear abundant evidence of his untiring industry and unusual success.
That he died a martyr to his love for Natural History, there is no room for doubt; and his most appropriate memorials are the magnificent evergreens now adorning, through his agency, the groves and avenues of the old world.
With all impartial naturalists, Mr. Bridges and such as he, “who bear the burden and heat of the day,” are entitled to honors; if not precisely of the same character as those due to the students who in their comfortable libraries work up the results of the collector, still to honors quite as high.
President in the chair.
Eight members present.
Mr. Bolander presented his report, as Curator of Botany, for the year 1865, as follows.
During the past year the Herbarium of the Academy has been increased—1st. By a set of Hall’s Rocky Mountain Plants.2d. By a collection of plants from the Western States, made by Mr. Elihu Hall.3d. By a large collection made by Mr. Canby at Wilmington, Del.4th. By a small collection from M. S. Bebb, Esq., Washington, D. C.To the above-mentioned collections, I have added specimens of each plant collected by myself during the past year.Dr. Kellogg and myself have presented to the Academy quite a number of Australian plants, and both Dr. Kellogg and Mr. Bloomer have assisted me in arranging and classifying our collections.
During the past year the Herbarium of the Academy has been increased—
1st. By a set of Hall’s Rocky Mountain Plants.
2d. By a collection of plants from the Western States, made by Mr. Elihu Hall.
3d. By a large collection made by Mr. Canby at Wilmington, Del.
4th. By a small collection from M. S. Bebb, Esq., Washington, D. C.
To the above-mentioned collections, I have added specimens of each plant collected by myself during the past year.
Dr. Kellogg and myself have presented to the Academy quite a number of Australian plants, and both Dr. Kellogg and Mr. Bloomer have assisted me in arranging and classifying our collections.
President in the chair.
Five members present.
Mr. Dall presented the following paper by Dr. Canfield.
Notes on Antilocapra Americana, Ord.BY DR. C. A. CANFIELD, OF MONTEREY.The following notes were taken from 1855 to 1858, in Monterey County, California, and were communicated to Prof. Baird in 1859.About the first of January the old bucks all shed their horns. A few days after, one was shot, with two hairy stumps or horn-cores, several inches long, just tipped with growing horn. This was observed to spread upward and downward till the whole of the process of the frontal bone was covered with horn. The “prong” commenced the same process at its tip, and gradually coalesced with the main horn, leaving no suture. As the horn increases in length it curves forward and inward. It takes several months to perfect the new horn. The females possess small curved horns, one to three inches long, sometimes recurving to the skull, which were notprovedto be deciduous.The horn, when shed, leaves a process of the frontal bone, covered with hair, soon replaced as above by horn at the tip. These facts were more minutely observed in two young bucks, reared by hand to the age respectively of one and two years.These facts would tend to separate the genusAntilocaprafrom the familyCavicornia, and it may possibly form a family by itself.
BY DR. C. A. CANFIELD, OF MONTEREY.
The following notes were taken from 1855 to 1858, in Monterey County, California, and were communicated to Prof. Baird in 1859.
About the first of January the old bucks all shed their horns. A few days after, one was shot, with two hairy stumps or horn-cores, several inches long, just tipped with growing horn. This was observed to spread upward and downward till the whole of the process of the frontal bone was covered with horn. The “prong” commenced the same process at its tip, and gradually coalesced with the main horn, leaving no suture. As the horn increases in length it curves forward and inward. It takes several months to perfect the new horn. The females possess small curved horns, one to three inches long, sometimes recurving to the skull, which were notprovedto be deciduous.
The horn, when shed, leaves a process of the frontal bone, covered with hair, soon replaced as above by horn at the tip. These facts were more minutely observed in two young bucks, reared by hand to the age respectively of one and two years.
These facts would tend to separate the genusAntilocaprafrom the familyCavicornia, and it may possibly form a family by itself.
Prof. W. P. Blake read a portion of a letter from Dr. C. T. Jackson of Boston, containing a notice of a remarkable spider brought from Georgia by Dr. Wilder, an account of which has been published in the Proceedings of the American Academy and of the Boston Natural History Society.
President in the chair.
Nine members present.
Dr. Colbert A. Canfield, of Monterey, was chosen a Corresponding Member, and Dr. Henry Gibbons and Mr. Henry Janin, Resident Members.
Donations to the Library: U. S. Census, 1860—Agriculture; American Journal of Science, November, 1865, and January, 1866; Proceedings of the Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., April to October, 1865; Theory of Parallels, by Matthew Ryan; Description of New Species of Pupidæ, by E. S. Morse; Proceedings of Boston Nat. Hist. Soc., Vol. X, Sheet 2.
The following paper was presented.
Earthquakes in California during 1865.BY DR. JOHN B. TRASK.As in the preceding year we have had much frequency in shocks of earthquake, with but trifling damage.January9th, 7 h.—A smart shock at Santa Rosa, Sonoma County.January19th, 8 h. 8 m.—A light shock at San Francisco.March5th, 8 h. 45 m.—A light shock at Visalia, consisting of a tremulous motion, succeeded by a roll or wave after an interval of about four seconds.March7th, 23 h.—A smart shock at San Francisco.March8th, 6 h. 22 m.—A smart shock at San Francisco.March30th, 7 h. 28 m.—A very smart shock at San Francisco; this was felt at Oakland.April15th, 0 h. 40 m.—A severe shock occurred at San Diego, consisting of three waves, following each other in quick succession; the shock was preceded with a loud rushing sound.April18th, 13 h. 31 m.—A light shock at San Francisco, and noticed at Angel Island and Oakland. This shock was severe at San Juan (south), and felt at precisely the same hour.April27th, 15 h. 56 m.—A shock at San Francisco.May24th, 3 h. 21 m.—A smart shock at San Francisco, consisting of a single wave. At San Juan (south) the earthquake consisted of two sharp shocks, and at Santa Cruz of one only. At the latter localities it was three and four minutes later than at this city.September22d (no hour).—A smart shock occurred at Yreka.October1st, 9 h. 15 m.—A very smart shock was felt at Fort Humboldt, and throughout the district of Humboldt Bay.October8th, 12 h. 46 m.—A severe shock at San Francisco. This earthquake was the most violent of any occurring on this peninsula since the American occupancy, but was not sufficiently heavy to do serious damage; all the injuries sustained to property were of a trivial nature, the principal being the demolition of parts of the parapet walls erected above the roofs, to shield the latter in cases of fire in adjoining buildings; the fracture of walls in every instance occurred in insecure buildings, and heavy buildings erected on the made lands of the city front.At San José, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz, the earthquake appears to have been equally severe as in this city. At Petaluma, on the north, it was also quite severe. At Sacramento the shock was not marked by the same severity as at the other localities mentioned. At Stockton the shock was heavy, but no damage done, nor was there any damage at Sacramento. The shock was severe at Grass Valley.The direction of the wave in this earthquake was north fifty degrees west; the limited area over which it extended has not furnished sufficient data to calculate its velocity.This earthquake differs from all others that have occurred in this locality in this particular: the earth continued to vibrate with increasing and again decreasing degrees of force for ten hours, at no time entirely ceasing during this period.22 h. 1 m., another light shock, consisting of a single vibration.23 h. 50 m., another shock. After this shock the vibrations of the earth ceased to be noticeable.October 9th, 10 h. 34 m.—Another light shock.11 h. 32 m., another shock. After this shock the earth continued to vibrate at intervals till noon of the tenth.October13th, 2 h. 5 m.—A smart shock at San Francisco; felt at Oakland and Santa Clara; also at Angel Island.October14th, 23 h. 45 m.—Another shock at San Francisco.October15th, 3 h. 40 m.—Another shock at San Francisco.November24th, 3 h. 45 m.—A smart shock at Watsonville, Santa Cruz Co.December7th, 1 h. 15 m.—A light shock at San Francisco.
BY DR. JOHN B. TRASK.
As in the preceding year we have had much frequency in shocks of earthquake, with but trifling damage.
January9th, 7 h.—A smart shock at Santa Rosa, Sonoma County.
January19th, 8 h. 8 m.—A light shock at San Francisco.
March5th, 8 h. 45 m.—A light shock at Visalia, consisting of a tremulous motion, succeeded by a roll or wave after an interval of about four seconds.
March7th, 23 h.—A smart shock at San Francisco.
March8th, 6 h. 22 m.—A smart shock at San Francisco.
March30th, 7 h. 28 m.—A very smart shock at San Francisco; this was felt at Oakland.
April15th, 0 h. 40 m.—A severe shock occurred at San Diego, consisting of three waves, following each other in quick succession; the shock was preceded with a loud rushing sound.
April18th, 13 h. 31 m.—A light shock at San Francisco, and noticed at Angel Island and Oakland. This shock was severe at San Juan (south), and felt at precisely the same hour.
April27th, 15 h. 56 m.—A shock at San Francisco.
May24th, 3 h. 21 m.—A smart shock at San Francisco, consisting of a single wave. At San Juan (south) the earthquake consisted of two sharp shocks, and at Santa Cruz of one only. At the latter localities it was three and four minutes later than at this city.
September22d (no hour).—A smart shock occurred at Yreka.
October1st, 9 h. 15 m.—A very smart shock was felt at Fort Humboldt, and throughout the district of Humboldt Bay.
October8th, 12 h. 46 m.—A severe shock at San Francisco. This earthquake was the most violent of any occurring on this peninsula since the American occupancy, but was not sufficiently heavy to do serious damage; all the injuries sustained to property were of a trivial nature, the principal being the demolition of parts of the parapet walls erected above the roofs, to shield the latter in cases of fire in adjoining buildings; the fracture of walls in every instance occurred in insecure buildings, and heavy buildings erected on the made lands of the city front.
At San José, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz, the earthquake appears to have been equally severe as in this city. At Petaluma, on the north, it was also quite severe. At Sacramento the shock was not marked by the same severity as at the other localities mentioned. At Stockton the shock was heavy, but no damage done, nor was there any damage at Sacramento. The shock was severe at Grass Valley.
The direction of the wave in this earthquake was north fifty degrees west; the limited area over which it extended has not furnished sufficient data to calculate its velocity.
This earthquake differs from all others that have occurred in this locality in this particular: the earth continued to vibrate with increasing and again decreasing degrees of force for ten hours, at no time entirely ceasing during this period.
22 h. 1 m., another light shock, consisting of a single vibration.
23 h. 50 m., another shock. After this shock the vibrations of the earth ceased to be noticeable.
October 9th, 10 h. 34 m.—Another light shock.
11 h. 32 m., another shock. After this shock the earth continued to vibrate at intervals till noon of the tenth.
October13th, 2 h. 5 m.—A smart shock at San Francisco; felt at Oakland and Santa Clara; also at Angel Island.
October14th, 23 h. 45 m.—Another shock at San Francisco.
October15th, 3 h. 40 m.—Another shock at San Francisco.
November24th, 3 h. 45 m.—A smart shock at Watsonville, Santa Cruz Co.
December7th, 1 h. 15 m.—A light shock at San Francisco.
Professor Whitney presented the plate published by Mr. Haidinger, the distinguished Chief of the Austrian Geological Survey, to exhibit the structure of the Carleton meteoric iron. This plate, together with an elaborate article describing the appearance and structure of this meteorite, is published in the proceedings of the Vienna Academy of Science, Vol. XLVIII, page 301.
Professor Whitney also made some remarks on the nature and distribution of the meteorites which have, up to the present time, been discovered on the Pacific Coast and in Mexico; of these remarks the following is an abstract.
It is remarkable that no meteoric stones have ever been discovered, either near the Pacific coast or, indeed, so far as we know, anywhere on this side of the Rocky Mountains. Masses of meteoric iron, on the other hand, are known to exist in quite a number of localities, and many of these masses are of very large size.On page eleven, of the third volume of the Academy’s Proceedings, I have given a list of the localities of meteoric iron known in Arizona and Northern Mexico. This was done in order to attract the attention of explorers and prospectors to these remarkable masses, and in the hope of getting more definite information in regard to some of them. Indeed, some additional items have already been obtained in reference to the masses there noticed.It is stated by several persons who have visited Southern Arizona, among whom Dr. Horn may especially be mentioned, that it is universally believed, and vouched for by apparently trustworthy explorers, that there are many large masses of iron near the summit of the range next east of Tucson. This is called on the latest map of Arizona, (that published by Mr. Gird) the “Sierra de la Santa Caterina.” Whether this is the same as the “Sierra de la Madera,” mentioned by Velasco, as the locality of “enormous masses of pure iron, between Tucson and Tubac,” I have been unable to ascertain.Dr. J. B. Trask saw, in August, 1849, a large mass of meteoric iron, at the village of Rio Florida, partly buried in the ground at the corner of the plaza. This may, perhaps, be the same mass mentioned by Mr. Bartlett, as existing “at the Hacienda de Concepcion, on the road from Chihuahua to Rio Florida.” Dr. Trask, however, has a distinct recollection that the mass he saw was at the village of Rio Florida, and not at the Hacienda.Dr. Veatch saw, in 1849, a large mass of iron at Santa Rosa, Coahuila, which was then in use as an anvil, at a blacksmith’s shop, and was informed that many pieces of native iron had been used there for various purposes. The mass which Dr. Veatch saw, was of about the size of an ordinary anvil. It was said to have been brought from the mountains northwest of the town. This statement corroborates that of Schott, in the Mexican Boundary Report. (Vol. I, Part 2, page 34.)It is a remarkable fact, considering the abundance of meteoric iron near our borders, that no meteorite, either stony or metallic, has yet been found within the limits of California. The piece of iron from Honcut Creek, found by Dr. Trask, and supposed to be of celestial origin, proved, on careful examination, to be ordinary cast iron. A fragment of the mass was referred to Professor Brush, and pronounced by him not to be meteoric. The existence of a piece of cast iron, in the locality where this was discovered, is not easily explained. In connection with what has just been said of the existence of meteoric iron in California, it should be added, that Dr. J. G. Cooper thinks that he observed some small pieces of native iron on the Mohave River, a little above its sink. By accident no specimen of this supposed meteorite were saved, so that it is not possible to say that Dr. Cooper may not have been mistaken. The attention of explorers in that region is invited to this supposed locality.An additional reason for believing Dr. Cooper’s observations to be correct is, that the locality lies in the prolongation of the path or belt in which a considerable number of masses of meteoric iron have already been found. It is certainly either a very interesting fact, or else a remarkable coincidence, that the localities of meteoric iron in Arizona and northern Mexico, lie nearly in a straight line with each other, which line extends from northwest to southeast, for a distance of twelve hundred and fifty miles, or from the Colorado River, at La Paz, to the province of San Luis Potosi, in Mexico. Along this line, at points from two hundred to two hundred and fifty miles apart, in some places one mass of iron, and in others quite a number of them, have fallen, indicating very strongly a common origin for the whole, or that they may all be fragments of one immense meteor which passed diagonally across the continent, throwing off masses in its progress. The large mass of iron discovered by Dr. Evans, on Bald Mountain, near Port Orford, in Oregon, is in a locality not far distant from the path of the supposed meteor.The belt of meteoric iron masses may also be prolonged much farther to the south, through Mexico, and in the same general southeasterly direction, as far as the province of Oaxaca. The localities in the provinces of Durango, Zacatecas, Mexico, and Oaxaca lie very nearly in the same northwest-southeast direction from each other; but are in a line a little to the west of the main belt which has been traced down from the Colorado River. It is certain that the central part of Mexico has been highly favored in respect to the distribution of meteoric iron masses, which are not only of frequent occurrence, but often of large size. Perhaps it may be not too wild a speculation to suggest, that the grand disruption of the meteor may have taken place in this part of its course, and that the fragments were scattered far and wide in all directions. It certainly seems difficult to account for the peculiar position of the masses of iron found on the Pacific side of the continent, and their great abundance in central Mexico, on any other theory than the one which has here been suggested.Authorities are not at hand for comparing the chemical composition of all the masses belonging to this series, or belt, which have been analyzed; but it is my impression that those meteoric irons which have been examined do resemble each other sufficiently, in the nature and proportion of the ingredients they contain, to add to the probability of their having had a common origin. The specimens thus far analyzed do not represent more than half the localities known to exist. A farther and more complete investigation of the physical and chemical character of all the meteoric masses of Arizona and Mexico, with reference to the possibility of their being originally parts of one body, is suggested as an interesting subject for those specially devoted to this class of researches.
It is remarkable that no meteoric stones have ever been discovered, either near the Pacific coast or, indeed, so far as we know, anywhere on this side of the Rocky Mountains. Masses of meteoric iron, on the other hand, are known to exist in quite a number of localities, and many of these masses are of very large size.
On page eleven, of the third volume of the Academy’s Proceedings, I have given a list of the localities of meteoric iron known in Arizona and Northern Mexico. This was done in order to attract the attention of explorers and prospectors to these remarkable masses, and in the hope of getting more definite information in regard to some of them. Indeed, some additional items have already been obtained in reference to the masses there noticed.
It is stated by several persons who have visited Southern Arizona, among whom Dr. Horn may especially be mentioned, that it is universally believed, and vouched for by apparently trustworthy explorers, that there are many large masses of iron near the summit of the range next east of Tucson. This is called on the latest map of Arizona, (that published by Mr. Gird) the “Sierra de la Santa Caterina.” Whether this is the same as the “Sierra de la Madera,” mentioned by Velasco, as the locality of “enormous masses of pure iron, between Tucson and Tubac,” I have been unable to ascertain.
Dr. J. B. Trask saw, in August, 1849, a large mass of meteoric iron, at the village of Rio Florida, partly buried in the ground at the corner of the plaza. This may, perhaps, be the same mass mentioned by Mr. Bartlett, as existing “at the Hacienda de Concepcion, on the road from Chihuahua to Rio Florida.” Dr. Trask, however, has a distinct recollection that the mass he saw was at the village of Rio Florida, and not at the Hacienda.
Dr. Veatch saw, in 1849, a large mass of iron at Santa Rosa, Coahuila, which was then in use as an anvil, at a blacksmith’s shop, and was informed that many pieces of native iron had been used there for various purposes. The mass which Dr. Veatch saw, was of about the size of an ordinary anvil. It was said to have been brought from the mountains northwest of the town. This statement corroborates that of Schott, in the Mexican Boundary Report. (Vol. I, Part 2, page 34.)
It is a remarkable fact, considering the abundance of meteoric iron near our borders, that no meteorite, either stony or metallic, has yet been found within the limits of California. The piece of iron from Honcut Creek, found by Dr. Trask, and supposed to be of celestial origin, proved, on careful examination, to be ordinary cast iron. A fragment of the mass was referred to Professor Brush, and pronounced by him not to be meteoric. The existence of a piece of cast iron, in the locality where this was discovered, is not easily explained. In connection with what has just been said of the existence of meteoric iron in California, it should be added, that Dr. J. G. Cooper thinks that he observed some small pieces of native iron on the Mohave River, a little above its sink. By accident no specimen of this supposed meteorite were saved, so that it is not possible to say that Dr. Cooper may not have been mistaken. The attention of explorers in that region is invited to this supposed locality.
An additional reason for believing Dr. Cooper’s observations to be correct is, that the locality lies in the prolongation of the path or belt in which a considerable number of masses of meteoric iron have already been found. It is certainly either a very interesting fact, or else a remarkable coincidence, that the localities of meteoric iron in Arizona and northern Mexico, lie nearly in a straight line with each other, which line extends from northwest to southeast, for a distance of twelve hundred and fifty miles, or from the Colorado River, at La Paz, to the province of San Luis Potosi, in Mexico. Along this line, at points from two hundred to two hundred and fifty miles apart, in some places one mass of iron, and in others quite a number of them, have fallen, indicating very strongly a common origin for the whole, or that they may all be fragments of one immense meteor which passed diagonally across the continent, throwing off masses in its progress. The large mass of iron discovered by Dr. Evans, on Bald Mountain, near Port Orford, in Oregon, is in a locality not far distant from the path of the supposed meteor.
The belt of meteoric iron masses may also be prolonged much farther to the south, through Mexico, and in the same general southeasterly direction, as far as the province of Oaxaca. The localities in the provinces of Durango, Zacatecas, Mexico, and Oaxaca lie very nearly in the same northwest-southeast direction from each other; but are in a line a little to the west of the main belt which has been traced down from the Colorado River. It is certain that the central part of Mexico has been highly favored in respect to the distribution of meteoric iron masses, which are not only of frequent occurrence, but often of large size. Perhaps it may be not too wild a speculation to suggest, that the grand disruption of the meteor may have taken place in this part of its course, and that the fragments were scattered far and wide in all directions. It certainly seems difficult to account for the peculiar position of the masses of iron found on the Pacific side of the continent, and their great abundance in central Mexico, on any other theory than the one which has here been suggested.
Authorities are not at hand for comparing the chemical composition of all the masses belonging to this series, or belt, which have been analyzed; but it is my impression that those meteoric irons which have been examined do resemble each other sufficiently, in the nature and proportion of the ingredients they contain, to add to the probability of their having had a common origin. The specimens thus far analyzed do not represent more than half the localities known to exist. A farther and more complete investigation of the physical and chemical character of all the meteoric masses of Arizona and Mexico, with reference to the possibility of their being originally parts of one body, is suggested as an interesting subject for those specially devoted to this class of researches.
The following resolution, introduced by Professor Whitney, at a previous meeting, in accordance with the Constitution, was adopted.