52 Hardy, Tall Trees of Austyalia. [voT"^''xxxV 



Edward VII." measures about 112 feet rouud at the ground 

 line ; present height of the tree is only 200 feet. 



The general slimness of our trees has been animadverted on 

 by at least one American writer, which reminds me of having, 

 with Dr. Eames and Mr. Synnott, M.A., of Harvard University, 

 visited the forest on the slopes of Donna Buang during an 

 official visit for the Forests Department. There (the American 

 visitors assisting) I measured E. regnans, of average sawmilling 

 girth, in the locality. One was 242 feet high (by clinometer 

 and tape) and innocent of buttresses, with a diameter of only 

 4 feet b inches at 5 feet from the ground. Another, which I 

 personally measured with clinometer and tape, in the Beenak 

 Ranges, was 290 feet, with girth of only 18 feet at 5 feet from 

 the ground. This tree had very slight buttresses. Near the 

 source of the Bunyip another tree had only 4 feet diameter and a 

 height of 260 feet. Usually old trees are buttressed. 



American Tree Records. 



In California there are two species of Sequoia. There 

 is the Big Tree, Sequoia gigantea (also called S. Wellingtonia), 

 and the Redwood, S. sempervircns. Both are evergreens, 

 with persistent, rough, thick bark, conforming to the fiutings 

 of the stems. The Big Tree is the bulkier of the two. 

 Redwood is the taller, and, while the former has stiff 

 greyish-green foliage something like that of a Cypress or 

 Araucaria, the latter has its small linear leaves flattened 

 out, and the general appearance of a twig is like that 

 (^ a Yew. Big Tree grows at higher altitudes — 5,000- 

 8,000 feet — and remote from the sea ; Redwood grows nearer 

 the coast, and below the zone favoured by the Big Trees. 

 Sargent states that Sequoia Wellingtonia reaches, at maturity, 

 275 feet, with trunk diameter of 20 feet near ground, occasion- 

 ally becoming 320 feet high, with diameter 35 feet. For Sequoia 

 sempervirens the same authority records 300-340 feet, with a 

 slightly tapering and irregularly-lobed trunk rarely 28 feet 

 in diameter at the much-buttressed base, and with bark 6 inches 

 to 12 inches thick. In " Silva of North America " Sargent 

 gives 325 feet for a Big Tree as the tallest of two measured, and 

 of Redwood says : — " 20 to 28 feet at the much-buttressed base 

 and 350 feet tall. The Redwood, which is the tallest American 

 tree, probably occasionally reaches a height of 400 feet or more. 

 The tallest specimen I have measured was 340 feet high." 



According to the Southern Pacific Railway Guide, the Big 

 Tree (there called S. gigantea) has specimens that tower nearly 

 400 feet to the sky, and one is said slightly to exceed this, 

 while many measure from 70 to 90 feet round. The largest, 

 recently discovered, has a base circumference of 109 feet. 



