DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— CONIFERS— ABIETINBJOJ. 75 



ABIETINEJ5. 



SEQUOIA, Torr. 



Sequoia affinis, Lesqz. 



Plate VII, Figs. 3-5; Plate LXV, Figs. 1-4. 



Sequoia affinis, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1674, p. 310. 



Branches long, slender, pinnately irregularly divided ; leaves short, oblong, or Ungulate, ohtusely 

 pointed, imbricated, erect, or appressed; branchlets bearing fertile cones, open; strobiles small, oval, 

 obtuse; scales large, rhomboidal, with entire borders, a central oval mamilla and wrinkles passing from 

 it to the borders all around ; branches bearing male catkins erect, with slightly more acute and longer 

 leaves; catkins small, broadly oval, obtuse, covered to the top with imbricated. Ungulate, pointed scales. 



We have of this species numerous and well-preserved specimens, some 

 of which are figured in pi. Ixv, figs. 1-4. The divisions are generally pinnate, 

 sometimes fastigiato-pinnate ; the leaves linguiform, more or less abruptly 

 narrowed to a point, decurrent, without apparent trace of a middle nerve. 

 In the fragments represented in pi. vii, figs. 3-5, the leaves are more obtuse, 

 as also the scales of the male catkins (fig. 5). These fragments may repre- 

 sent a different species, but they are too imperfect for exact specification. 

 They may be even referable as variety to Glyptostrobus Europceus, being 

 upon the same j^ieces of soft shale as those of figs. 1 and 2 of the same plate 

 As represented in pi. Ixv, Sequoia affinis has a remarkable affinity to <S. 

 Coutsice, Heer (Bovey-Tracey, Mioc. Fl., p. 1051, pi. lix, Ix, Ixi); still more 

 to S. Tournalii, Brgt., as figured in Sap., fit., ii, p. 2, pi. ii, fig. 1, and may 

 be considered as an American form of this type. It merely differs from both 

 species by the more obtuse point of the fertile, scale-like leaves, which are 

 also longer and more gradually pointed upon the sterile branches ; by the 

 slender, longer branchlets, bearing the cones at their end only; by the more 

 distinctly oval form of the slightly smaller strobiles, and by the absence of a 

 middle nerve on the back of the convex or inflated leaves. The seeds, if 

 the one figured in pi. Ixv (figs. 4 and 4a enlarged) belongs to this species, 

 are smaller, distinctly cordate, and obtusely pointed, bearing near the point 

 a mere trace of a line, which divides, diverging on both sides toward the 

 borders. In S. Coutsicc, the seeds are oval-cordate, with a small, inflated, 

 lanceolate-pointed nucleus, surrounded by a narrow wing. We have seen, 

 however, only one of these seeds, and, though upon the same specimen as 

 the branches of this species, its position does not positively indicate a relation 

 to it. Moreover, those small bodies present varied forms, according to their 

 position in the matrix wherein they are in)bedded. One scale, enlarged, 

 shows the wrinkles of the surface (fig. la); its borders are more inflated and 



