ns. There is undeniable repetition in the succession of
flower-gardens, fruit orchards, alleys of palms and peppers, vineyards,
and the cultivation about the villas is repeated in all directions. The
Americans have not the art of making houses or a land picturesque. The
traveller is enthusiastic about the exquisite drives through these
groves of fruit, with the ashy or the snow-covered hills for background
and contrast, and he exclaims at the pretty cottages, vine and rose
clad, in their semi-tropical setting, but if by chance he comes upon an
old adobe or a Mexican ranch house in the country, he has emotions of a
different sort.

[Illustration: SCARLET PASSION-VINE.]

There is little left of the old Spanish occupation, but the remains of
it make the romance of the country, and appeal to our sense of fitness
and beauty. It is to be hoped that all such historical associations will
be preserved, for they give to the traveller that which our country
generally lacks, and which is so largely the attraction of Italy and
Spain. Instead of adapting and modifying the houses and homes that the
climate suggests, the new American comers have brought here from the
East the smartness and prettiness of our modern nondescript
architecture. The low house, with recesses and galleries, built round an
inner court, or _patio_, which, however small, would fill the whole
interior with sunshine and the scent of flowers, is the sort of dwelling
that would suit the climate and the habit of life here. But the present
occupiers have taken no hints from the natives. In village and country
they have done all they can, in spite of the maguey and the cactus and
the palm and the umbrella-tree and the live-oak and the riotous flowers
and the thousand novel forms of vegetation, to give everything a prosaic
look. But why should the tourist find fault with this? The American
likes it, and he would not like the picturesqueness of the Spanish or
the Latin races.

So far as climate and natural beauty go to make one contented in a
winter resort, Southern California has unsurpassed attractions, and both
seem to me to fit very well the American temperament; but the
associations of art and history are wanting, and the tourist knows how
largely his enjoyment of a vacation in Southern Italy or Sicily or
Northern Africa depends upon these--upon these and upon the aspects of
human nature foreign to his experience.

It goes without saying that this is not Europe,