OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 97 



the Wellingtonia (as it is called) of California is at least as rapid in 

 its growth as the Taxodium. We may safely infer, I think, in the 

 absence of other data, that when the tree in question had attained the 

 size of 26 inches in semidiameter, it was only 576 years old. If 

 thereafter we suppose it to have increased at the intermediate rate of 

 35 layers per inch for the next 26 inches, and at the actual rate of the 

 last century (as ascertained by inspection), namely, at 48 layers per 

 inch, for the remaining 10 inches, we should assign to it the age of 

 2,066 years as its highest probable age. I think it more likely to be 

 shown, when the wanting data are supplied, that the tree does not 

 antedate the Christian era. There are said to be eighty or ninety 

 such trees, of from ten to twenty feet in diameter, growing within the 

 circuit of a mile from the one felled. When the next of these ven- 

 erable trees is wantonly destroyed, it is to be hoped that its layers 

 will be accurately counted on the whole section, and the thickness of 

 each century's growth carefully measured on the radius. 



" The tree in question is a near relative of the Redioood of California, 

 namely, the Taxodium sempervirens of Don, of late very properly 

 distinguished as a separate genus under the unmeaning and not eupho- 

 nious name of Sequoia, — a tree now growing in England, and spar- 

 ingly also in our own vicinity, where it is barely hardy. My friend, 

 Dr. Torrey, has for nearly a year possessed specimens of foliage 

 of this tree, which he took to be a new species of Sequoia. The 

 fruit and branches of the juniper-like foliage (probably only one form 

 of a dimorphous foliage, which is common in Cupressinea.) having 

 been received in England from Mr. Lobb by Dr. Lindley and Sir 

 William Hooker, they have recognized in this tree the type of a new 

 genus distinct from Sequoia, to which the former has given the name 

 of Wellingtonia, The wood is, I believe, much the same as that of 

 the Redwood, which tree also attains a gigantic size. The prin- 

 cipal characters yet ascertained are that the cones of Wellingtonia 

 are oblong, and have a thick woody axis. Additional materials are 

 needed to confirm the genus, if such it be." 



Mr. Paine made the following communication on the ap- 

 proaching eclipse of the sun : — 



" On the afternoon of Friday, the 26th of May next, there will be 

 an eclipse of the sun visible and generally large throughout the United 

 States, and actually annular in part of the Territories of Washington 



VOL. III. 13 



