monster tree, which I published in the ‘Icones Plantarum,’ tab. 
379, as the Sequoia sempervirens*, and probably the tree in 
question. Time, and our increased and increasing knowledge 
of Californian trees, proved that I was in error, and that the sub- 
ject of my plate in reality belonged to Adies bracteata (Botanical 
Magazine, ‘Tab. 4640). Happily Mr. William Lobb sent home 
specimens of the branches of his gigantic Conifer, bearing foliage 
and cones, a drawing of the entire tree, with its accompanying 
scenery, bark, wood, etc., together with the following account of 
it, which appeared in the ‘ Gardeners’ Chronicle,’ under the arti- 
cle quoted above, of Dr. Lindley, for 1853, p. 819 :— 
“This magnificent tree, from its extraordinary height and 2 
large dimensions, may be termed the monarch of the Californian 
forest. It inhabits a solitary district on the elevated slopes of 
the Sierra Nevada, near the head-waters of the Stanislau and 
San Antonio rivers, in latitude 38° N., longitude 129° 10’ W., 
at an elevation of 5000 feet from the level of the sea. From 
eighty to ninety trees exist, all within the circuit of a mile, and 
these varying from 250 feet to 320 feet in height, and from ten 
to twenty feet in the diameter of the trunk. Their manner of 
growth is much like that of Sequoia (Taxodium) sempervirens ; 
some are solitary, some are in pairs, while some, and not unfre- 
quently, stand three and four together. A tree recently felled 
measured about 300 feet in length, with a diameter, including 
bark, 29 feet 2 inches, at five feet from the ground ; at eighteen 
fect from the ground it was 14 feet 6 inches through; at 100 
feet from the ground, fourteen feet; and at 200 feet from the 
ground, five feet five inches. The bark is of a pale cinnamon- 
brown, and from twelve to fifteen inches in thickness. The 
branchlets are round, somewhat pendent, and resembling a Cy- 
press or Juniper. The leaves are pale grass-green ; those of the 
young trees are spreading, with a sharp, acuminate point. The 
cones are about two and a half inches long, and two inches 
across the thickest part. The trunk of the tree in question was 
perfectly solid from the sap-wood to the centre, and, judging by 
the number of concentric rings, its age has been estimated at 
_ 3000 years. The wood is light, soft, and of a reddish colour, 
__ like Redwood (or Zacodium sempervivum). 
___ “Of this vegetable monster, twenty-one feet of the bark, from 
_ the lower part of the trunk, has been put up in the natural form, 
in San Francisco, for exhibition; it there forms a spacious car- 
peted room, and contains a piano, and seats for forty persons. 
* Mr. William Lobb (see ‘ Gardeners’ Chronicle,’ 1854, p- 22) has shown that 
Douglas’s monster tree could not have been the VW ellingtonia, for he was not within 
120 miles of its locality, but that it was really and truly the Sequoia sempervirens. 
Sequoia gigantea, therefore, of Endlicher, taken up from our figure, is a nonentity. 
