The Scientific Monthly (V. 4)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 edition. Excerpt: ...and landscape gardening will find here an exceptional opportunity for studying the ornamental trees and shrubs that may be grown in this extraordinarily favorable locality. Professor L. It. Abrams, who has consented to specially supervise the work, has already published1 a brief statement of the plan which is proposed. 1 Science, July 28, 1916, p. 128. The first new plantings were made last spring, and it is expected that during the coming year substantial additions will be made to the existing collection. Stanford University is situated on an estate of about 8,000 acres in the beautiful and fertile Santa Clara Valley, thirty miles south of San Francisco. Of this large area a considerable portion is still uncultivated, and furnishes excellent examples of the different plant formations characteristic of the region. The topography is varied and picturesque, including parts of the level valley floor, hut extending well into the foot hills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, which are 2,000 to 3,000 feet in height, and shelter the western side of the valley. The highest points on the Stanford estate are about 700 feet above San Francisco Bay. Much of the higher land is well wooded, and there may be found most of the trees and shrubs native to the valley--over sixty species have already been noted. Recently the trustees of the university have set aside as botanical reserves a number of the most interesting tracts of wild land, selected by the department of botany. It is planned to retain these permanently as examples of the indigenous flora of the region. With the varied topography is combined an equal variety in the geological formations, so that the number of species that grow naturally on the estate is very large, and there is an abundance of material for...