For an extensive improvement of the park, the question of irrigating water is an important one, and those plants that will thrive with the least labor given to them, and that require the least amount of water are very desirable. Some of our wild shrubs have been introduced into the Golden Gate park of San Francisco, and they certainly should be planted in the San Diego park, even if we can see them any day and familiarity has bred a certain amount of contempt in regard to them.

In the immediate vicinity of San Diego, not many trees grow naturally, excepting a few cottonwoods, willows, etc., along the dry streams, and the Torrey Pine of Del Mar. The nearest approach to a tree of any vegetation in the canyons of the dry mesas is Rhus laurina, one of the sumacs; it is always green and seems to grow in times of severest drought and would well repay a little care; and there is another sumac, Rhus integrifolia, a coast plant that does not object to dry weather, whose holly-like leaves also are green the entire year.

In northern Lower California there are hillsides covered with the white bush poppy, Romneya, and such hillsides should be seen in the San Diego park. They yellow bush poppy, Dendromecon, so abundant near Encinitas, is also equally desirable. The holly-leaved cherry, bright green and shining during the driest season of the year, is also admired and would be an economical and handsome adornment of any park. In some localities of the canyons of the park, at this time of the year, there are many bushes of Aplopappus Palmeri conspicuous on account of their branches silvery with the pappus following the yellow flowers; with a little encouragement they would doubtless attain the size and beauty of this shrub in the vicinity of Ensenada.

Some of the smaller bushes, such as the Toyon or Christmas berry, the gray silvery-leaved Eriodictyon or Yerba Santa, the red-flowered Mimulus, the blue-flowered and the white-flowered Ceanothus or California lilac, cannot be excelled in beauty by those of any region, and they already cover the neighboring mesas and flourish without irrigation. Many other native woody plants might be mentioned and there would remain unnoticed the crowd of herbaceous perennials and annuals, many of which are cultivated in foreign lands. One of the most showy and brilliant of the perennial herbaceous plants is Lathyrus splendens of the valley of Tia Juana, and when in bloom few if any flowering plants excel it in beauty. All such native vegetation is most desirable for the San Diego park.

How the woody vegetation whose home is in a region distant from the ocean, with a very hot summer, will adapt itself to the vicinity of San Diego can be found out only by planting it. That common bush of the Colorado desert, Larrea, the creosote plant, would not be expected to like our coast climate, but it grows finely here, is nearly always in bloom and its varnished leaves are evergreen.

San Diego Union, January 1, 1903. MANY KINDS OF PLANTS

The desert cacti and agaves will all grow here and probably many of the small trees of the eastern base of the Cuyamaca range will be found desirable associates for the plants of the coast and when well-established in the park, will require little water. Among them may be mentioned Nolina, a yucca-like plant, Rhus ovata, Olneya Tesota, a leguminous tree species of Ceanothus, anyone of which would be an ornament to the finest park.

Probably many trees of the higher elevations of the Cuyamaca range, with little more care than that necessary for the dry region vegetation would be suited with the park conditions, and if the red bud Fremontia, the manzanitas, the oaks, pines and fir can be made to grow here, they certainly should be planted. The floras of all the Upper and Lower California islands, from San Miguel to Cedros and Guadalupe, will grow in the San Diego park. From Guadalupe there is already in cultivation a palm, and from Santa Cruz, Lyonothamnus, a tree with fern-like foliage, and the island holly-leaved cherry. The island oak would give us a fine tree oak and the forms of the Christmas berry, Ceanothus, and other bushes are much larger and handsomer than those of the mainland and well-adapted to localities near the coast.

Plants from the south, rather than from the north, and from drier regions, rather than from those having a greater rainfall, are best suited to the requirements of a large San Diego park. These conditions are those belonging to portions of Mexico and especially those of Lower California, where all vegetable life delights in a climate near to the coast. The mountainous parts of Mexico are at times much colder than San Diego and there is every possibility of introducing exquisitely beautiful plants from the western slopes of the Sierra Madre.

All these Mexican and Lower California plants, when well established, will withstand severe droughts. Even some of the tropical vegetation may grow better in San Diego than below the Tropic of Cancer, but is inclination to become resident of a more northern country can be determined only by trial. It is certain, however, that some plants from as far south as Acapulco grow surprisingly well here, and tht others from the tropical part of Lower California are larger and more luxuriant than in their native country. The wealth of morning glories, of handsome Rubiaceous plants, of Agaves Nolinas and other striking and beautiful vegetation that could be introduced from Mexico, would in itself make the San Diego park an object of interest for the whole United States.

Of special value to the park, as requiring a minimum of water or care, are the so-called "succulent plants." Included among these are Mesembrianthemums, Sedums, Cotyledons, Agaves, Aloes, Cacti, Stapelias and many others, not necessary to be here mentioned

Of the Mesembrianthemums, there are about three hundred species, nearly all natives of South Africa, and therefore suited to this climate. The perennial species offer a ready means of covering large spaces with green foliage or, in time of bloom, with sheets of brilliant color, red, yellow, orange, magenta, etc.

Few persons have any idea of the decorative capabilities of the Cactaceae, nor how generously they respond to the slightest care. Especially is this true of the Opuntias. They are of many colors, gray, blue, rosy, dark green, or often white from a covering of spines. Their flowers are large and showy, red, yellow or purple, while the fruit of many of the forms is bright red or yellow and as large as a medium-size pear. Planted in masses with the taller forms as a background they are surprisingly pleasing. Such a plantation has been made at Riverside and it commands more attention from visitors than any other part of the grounds. Some of the cylindrical species, such as O. arborea, which has beautiful magenta flower, or O. Bigelovil from the Colorado desert, which grows in candelabra form, and is very conspicuous on account of its glistening straw-colored spines, could be used to great advantage in covering barren slopes.

San Diego Union, January 1, 1903. MANY KINDS OF PLANTS

The columnar species of Cereus are usually of rather slow growth, but one species forming clumps grows quite rapidly and is of a velvety yellow-green color. It is known as C. Emoryl and covers the seaward face of the bluffs near the Initial monument. There are numerous species of low-growing cacti that might be planted about the base of Opuntia thickets. Opuntia basilaris or Echinocereous Engelmanni, either of which in bloom are worth a journey to the desert to see.

The plants here mentioned are readily obtainable. Opuntias, as everyone knows, propagate from joints with great rapidity, and if a beginning of such a plantation were made, many of the large-flowering species of cereus, etc., would undoubtedly be donated.

T. S. BRANDEGEE