BOTANY. 34 : 



pairs, while some, and not unfrequently, stand three and four together. 

 A tree recently felled measxired about 300 feet in length, with a diameter, 

 including bark, of 29 feet 2 inches at 5 feet from the ground ; at 18 feet from 

 the ground it was 14 feet G inches through ; at 100 feet from the ground } 

 14 feet; and at 200 from the ground, 5 feet 5 inches. The bark is of a 

 pale cinnamon brown, and from 12 to 15 inches in thickness. The 

 branchlets arj round,, somewhat pendent, resembling a cypress or ju- 

 niper. The leaves are pale grass green. Those of the young trees are , 

 spreading with a sharp accuminate point. The cones are about 2 inches 

 long and 2 inches across at the thickest part. The trunk of the tree in 

 question was perfectly solid from the sap-wood to the centre ; and judging 

 from the number of concentric rings, its age has been estimated at 3,000 

 vears. r The wood is light, soft, and of a reddish color, like redwood or 

 Taxodium sempervirens. Of this vegetable monster, 21 feet of the bark, 

 from the lower part of the trunk, have been put in the natural form in San 

 Francisco for exhibition ; it there forms a spacious carpeted room, and con- 

 tains a piano, with seats for 40 persons. On one occasion, 140 children 

 were admitted without inconvenience. 



A piece of the wood, recently examined by Prof. Gray, of Cambridge, 

 was found to contain on an average 48 annual layers to the inch. The 

 semi- diameter of the tree, at the point where the specimen examined was 

 taken from, being 5 feet 2 inches, (viz., at 25 feet from the ground,) sup- 

 posing the tree increased in diameter at the same rate during its whole life, 

 there would be nearly 3,000 annual layers ; but Dr. Gray, in consideration 

 of the greater thickness of the layers of a young tree, and from comparison 

 of sections of the so called cypress of the Southern States, Taxodium dis- 

 tickiim, (as given in detail in the Proceedings of the American Academy, 

 vol. 3, p. 96,) assigns about 2,000 years as its highest probable age. 



Dr. C. F. Winslovv, formerly of Boston, furnishes to the California Farmer 

 the following description of a visit to the localities of these gigantic trees. He 

 savs, The road was more or less shaded all the way by pines so gigantic as 

 to awaken in me, who had never before seen the native ar.d lofty forest 

 scenery of the north temperate zone, the strongest feelings of wonder and 

 admiration. I had never before conceived of the capacity of the various 

 species of conifera to attain such enormous dimensions. They were often 

 6 feet through, and from 130 to 300 feet high, and so symmetrical and per- 

 fect in form as to impress me with new and more commanding ideas 

 respecting the force and operation of the vital principle presiding over the 

 nourishment and growth of organized bodies. 



"The height of the locality is about 5,000 feet above the sea, and 2,400 

 feet above ' Murphy's Camp,' on the Stanislaus. So far as known, the 

 vegetable growth to which the name of ' Big Tree ' has been attached 

 grows in no other region of the Sierra Nevada, nor on any other mountain 

 range of the earth. It exists here only, and all the individuals of its 

 kind, so far as I can learn, are localized to this vicinity. They are em- 

 braced within a range of 200 acres, and are enclosed in a basin of coarse 



