THE MAMAEOTH-TEEE. 14:1 



The public exhibition of the " Mammoth-Tree " in 

 London has, however, familiarised us with the fact that 

 greater trees exist than any yet noticed. Upper Cali- 

 fornia is the home of the most gigantic of vegetable pro- 

 ductions, which form two species of a sort of Cypress, 

 named respectively Sequoia sempervirens and Seq. Wel- 

 lingtonia. The latter has attained the most celebrity. 



" About thirty miles from Sonora, in the district of 

 Calaveras, you come to the Stanislas river ; and, following 

 one of its tributaries that murmurs through a deep, 

 wooded bed, you reach the Mammoth-tree Valley, which 

 lies fifteen hundred feet above the level of the sea. In 

 this valley you find yourself in the presence of the giants 

 of the vegetable world ; and the astonishment with w^hich 

 you contemplate from a distance these tower-like Coniferae, 

 rising far above the lofty pine-woods, is increased when 

 on a nearer approach you become aware of their pro- 

 digious dimensions. There is a family of them, consist- 

 ing of ninety members, scattered over a space of about 

 forty acres ; and the smallest and feeblest among them is 

 not less than fifteen feet in diameter. You can scarcely 

 believe your eyes as you look up to their crowns, which, 

 in the most vigorous of the colossal stems, only begin at 

 the height of a hundred and fifty or two hundred feet 

 from the ground." * 



Each member of this wonderful group has received a 

 familiar name, in many cases indicating in its homely 

 associations the rude mind of the backwoodsman. A 



* Mollhausen's Journey to the Pacific, ii., p. 363. 



