26 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Associated with the giant sequoias are to be found some of the best 

 specimens of other Sierran conifers. Of these the sugar pine is the 

 most magnificent. It is the king of pines. It attains a height of two 

 hundred to two hundred and twenty feet, with a bole eight to twelve 

 feet in diameter and often eight}' feet to the first limb. The huge 

 cones eighteen to twenty-six inches long hanging pendent from the tips 

 of the widely spreading branches are a striking feature that marks the 

 sugar pine as far as the eye can see. 



In the redwood {Sequoia sempervirens) the giant sequoia (Sequoia 

 gigantea) has a strong rival for first honors. The redwood is the high- 

 est known tree, the giant sequoia the greatest in diameter. Compara- 

 tively they stand about three hundred and fifty to three hundred and 

 twenty-five feet in height, and twenty-two to thirty feet in diameter. 

 The redwood is more abundant than the giant sequoia, and in the Hum- 

 boldt forests it forms magnificent stands of timber from which over 

 one million feet of lumber have been cut from one acre. 



The distribution of the redwood is an excellent illustration of the 

 delicate balance held between vegetation and climatic environment. It 

 forms a distinct belt along the coast ranges of central and northern 

 California, never extending inland more than twenty or thirty miles 

 and conforming with striking significance to the coastal fog belt. The 

 heavy summer fogs that frequent the coast ranges of central and north- 

 ern California lower the temperature and increase the atmospheric 

 humidity. Furthermore, the minute fog particles are collected on the 

 forest trees and precipitated to the ground. The writer has tramped 

 through fog in midsummer chilled to the marrow, with the trail muddy 

 and slippery wherever it passed beneath a tree. Indeed, so great was 

 the precipitation of the fog by trees that little rivulets formed and ran 

 several yards down the mountain trail. Fifteen minutes' walk away the 

 hot August sun was shining on a road inches thick in dust. Here were 

 climatic differences as great as those of England and Spain. 



Associated with the redwoods, but of more extended range are a 

 number of other trees of special interest. The tanbark oak (Pasania 

 densi flora) is the only representative in North America of that large 

 Asiatic genus. Its acorns resemble those of an oak, but the staminate 

 flowers are in dense erect catkins as in the chestnut, and with the same 

 disagreeable odor. The California laurel, the only member of the genus 

 Umbelhilaria, is a beautiful evergreen tree with smooth dark green 

 lance-shaped leaves that emit the odor of bay. The madrone (Arbutus 

 menziesii), with its smooth polished trunks of a rich mahogany color, 

 is one of the most striking trees in the California forests. It has at- 

 tractive foliage of large, smooth, glossy, oval leaves, and bears open clus- 

 ters of deep red berries that persist until Christmas. 



In addition to the sreat forests of the Sierra Nevada and the red- 



