TAXODIUM FAMILY 



69 



1. SEQUOIA Endl. Syn. Conif. 197. 1847. 



Tall, often massive, forest trees with thick, fibrous, reddish-brown bark ; soft, durable, 

 red heartwood. thin whitish sapwood, and short, stout, horizontal branches clothed with 

 slender lateral branchlets. Leaves decurrent at the base, spirally arranged, narrowly linear 

 and spreading in 2 ranks by a twist at the base, or scale-like and somewhat appressed on 

 all sides. Flowers monoecious, the staminate pale yellowish, terminal, ovoid or oblong, 

 surrounded by the ovate bud-scales ; anthers numerous, spirally arranged, with slender fila- 

 ments and a thin ovate connective bearing on the lower half of the inner surface 2-5 

 pendulous nearly globose pollen-sacs ; the ovulate terminal, green, ovoid to oblong, com- 

 posed of numerous spirally arranged imbricated ovate sharp-pointed scales closely adnate 

 to the shorter rounded ovule-bearing scales, these bearing several erect ovules in 2 rows. 

 Fruit an ovoid or broadly oblong woody cone, maturing the first or second year; cone- 

 scales narrowly wedge-shaped, flattened at the apex and transversely depressed through 

 the middle. Seeds 5-7 to each scale, oblong-ovate, flattened, with a thin, brownish seedcoat 

 produced into lateral wing-like margins; cotyledons 4-6. [Named in honor of Sequoyah, 

 inventor of the Cherokee alphabet.] 



Once composed of several species widely distributed over the northern hemisphere, but now reduced to 

 two species and confined to California and southern Oregon. Type species. Sequoia semf'ervirens (Lamb.) 

 Endl. 



Leaves of the ordinary foliage linear, spreading in 2 ranks; buds scaly; cones maturing the first year. 



1. .S". sempervirens. 

 Leaves scale-like, appressed or slightly spreading; buds naked; cones maturing the second year. 



2. S. gigantea. 



1. Sequoia sempervirens ( Lamb.) Endl. 

 Redwood. Fig. 145. 



Taxodiuin sempervirens Lamb. Pinus 2: 24. 1824. 

 Schubertia sempervirens Spach, Hist. Veg. 11: 353. 1842. 

 Sequoia sempervirens Endl. Syn. Conif. 198. 1847. 

 Sequoia gigantea Endl. Syn. Conif. 198. 1847. 

 Gigantabies taxifolia [Nelson] Senelis, Pinaceae. 78. 1866. 



A massive tree, usually from 50-80 m. high with a 

 slightly tapering trunk 2.5-5 m. in diameter, strongly 

 buttressed at base, attaining a maximum height of 104 m. 

 and a maximum diameter of 6.7 m. Branches slender on 

 young trees and clothed with slender branchlets spread- 

 ing and forming flat sprays, long covered by the per- 

 sistent decurrent leaf bases, on old trees stout and hori- 

 zontal, forming a narrow, irregular crown. Bark 15-30 

 cm. thick, divided into broad rounded ridges. Leaves 

 on the leading shoots short, scale-like and more or less 

 appressed, spirally distributed on all sides; those on the 

 ordinary branches 2-ranked, forming flat sprays, linear, 

 sharp-pointed, dark green and shining above, glaucous 

 beneath ; staminate flowers ovoid, green, composed of 

 about 12 anthers; the ovulate oblong, composed of 15-20 

 ovate-orbicular curved and pointed scales, each bearing 

 about 6 ovules ; cones maturing the first year, broadly 

 oblong, 25-35 mm. long, red-brown ; seeds oblong- 

 lanceolate, light brown, 12 mm. long; the wings about as broad as the body of the seed. 

 Characteristic tree of the coastal fog belt, Humid Transition Zone; southwestern border of Oregon 

 southward to the Santa Lucia Mountains, Monterey County, California, extending inland rarely more than 

 20-30 miles. The Redwood is the tallest known tree, 103.6 m. (,340 ft.). 



2, Sequoia gigantea (Lindl.) Decn. 

 Giant Sequoia or Big Tree. Fig. 146. 



Weiliiigtonia gigantea Lindl. Card. Chron. 18S3: 823. 1853, not 



Sequoia gigantea Endl. 1847. 

 Taxodiitm zi'asliingtoniiim Winsl. Calif. Farmer, 2: 58. 1854. 

 Sequoia wellingtonia Seeman, Bonplandia 3: 27. 1855. 

 Sequoia gigantea Decn. Rev. Hort. 1855: 9. 1855. 

 Taxodiuin giganteum Kell. & Behr, Proc. Calif. Acad. 1: 51. 



1855. 

 Sequoia washingtoniana Sudw. U. S. Div. Forest Bull. 14: 61. 



1897. 



Massive trees, attaining the greatest size and age 

 of any known species. The trunks are usually strongly 

 buttressed, reaching a maximum height of 99 m. and a 

 diameter of 10-12 m., often naked for 50 m. Branches 

 forming a compact, cone-like head, branchlets hori- 

 zontal with naked buds, becoming reddish brown after 

 the leaves have fallen ; bark divided into very broad 

 rounded ridges covered with cinnamon-brown, fibrous 

 scales. 3-6 dm. thick. Leaves decurrent, thickly cloth- 

 ing the branchlets and appressed except at the spread- 

 ing, awl-like tips, these 3-12 mm. long, rounded on the 

 back and concave on the inner surface, blue-green; 

 staminate flowers borne in great profusion over the 



