Book Description

Excerpt from The Broad-Sclerophyll Vegetation of California: An Ecological Study of the Chaparral and Its Related Communities The characteristic vegetation of California west of the high Sierra Nevada and the Colorado and Mojave Deserts is of the type aptly described by the term "broad-sclerophyll." The use of the prefix "broad," which expresses a very general group character, in distinction to the needle-leaf of the "narrow-sclerophyll" conifers, is not without its disadvantages, since the most important chaparral species, Adenostoma fasciculatum, possesses a needle-like leaf. This single though important exception seems not to be sufficient cause for discarding the very expressive appellation. Broad-sclerophyll vegetation is not confined to California, but recurs upon other portions of the earth's surface, notably the shores of the Mediterranean. The leaf character is the conspicuous and diagnostic feature, that organ being thick, stiff, and hard, ordinarily flat, and evergreen. Schimper (80) has shown that this vegetation type is everywhere correlated with a definite type of climate, namely, one with a long, dry summer and a rainy winter. Some of the broad-sclerophylls are trees, but most are scrubs. We therefore find broad-sclerophyll forest and broad-sclerophyll scrub, the latter being the more widespread and important. The present work is an ecological study of the broad-sclerophylls of California; of their relations to climate and soil and to each other. Being somewhat of a pioneer work, many phases of the problem are touched, and many lines of investigation have been opened up which could not be followed to the end. The field is a fascinating one, and a lifetime would not suffice to exhaust its possibilities. In the Mediterranean region broad-sclerophyll scrub is known as "macchie" and "garigue"; in California it is called "chaparral." It has already been noted that the scrub is more important than the forest, both scientifically and economically. In fact, the present research began as an investigation of the chaparral alone. Because of the close relations between them, it was a simple matter to extend the field of study to include the trees. The term "chaparral" is of Spanish origin, being derived from the word "chaparra," meaning scrub oak. It seems to have been applied by the early explorers of California to the low, shrubby, dominantly evergreen vegetation which they found to be so characteristic of the Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierras. Locally the term is sometimes restricted to a single species, often Ceanothus cuneatus. The term "chamisal" is frequently applied to a pure growth of Adenostoma fasciculatum or "chamise." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.