CALIFORNIA TREE NOVELTIES 



771 



in less dense forests, are found on the 

 west slopes of the Sierras, where the 

 Sequoias have been left grouped on 

 restricted areas, which were untouched 

 by the flood of glacial ice, which in 

 ages past broke through to the coastal 

 plains. 



Of these redwoods, John Muir well 

 says ; ' ' The redwood is the glory of the 

 Coast Range. It extends along the 

 western slope, in a nearly continuous 

 belt about 10 miles wide, from beyond 

 the Oregon boundary to the south of 

 Santa Cruz, a distance of nearly 400 

 miles, and in massive, sustained 

 grandeur and closeness of growth sur- 

 passes all the other timber woods of 

 the world. Trees from 10 to 15 feet 

 in diameter and 300 feet high are not 

 uncommon, and a few attain a height 

 of 350 feet or even 400, with a diameter 

 at the base of 15 to 20 feet or more, 

 while the ground beneath them is a 

 garden of fresh, exuberant ferns, lilies, 

 gaultheria, and rhododendron. This 

 grand tree. Sequoia sempervirens, is 

 surpassed in size only by its near 

 relative, Sequoia gigantea, or Big Tree, 

 of the Sierra Nevada, if, indeed, it is 



surpassed. The sempervirens is cer- 

 tainly the taller of the two. The 

 gigantea attains a greater girth, and is 

 heavier, more noble in part, and more 

 sublimely beautiful. These two Se- 

 quoias are all that are known to exist 

 in the world, though in former geolo- 

 gical times the genus was common and 

 had many sj^ecies. The redwood is 

 restricted to the Coast Range, and the 

 Big Tree to the Sierra. As timber the 

 redwood is too good to live. The 

 largest sawmills ever built are busy 

 along its seaward border, 'with all the 

 modern improvements,' but so immense 

 is the yield per acre it will be long ere 

 the supply is exhausted. The Big 

 Tree is also, to some extent, being made 

 into lumber. It is far less abundant 

 than the redwood, and is, fortunatelv, 

 less accessible, extending along the 

 western flank of the Sierra in a partially 

 interrupted belt, about 250 miles long, 

 at a height of from 4 to 8,000 feet above 

 the sea. The enormous logs, too heavy 

 to handle, are blasted into manageable 

 dimensions with gunpowder. A large 

 portion of the best timber is thus 

 shattered and destroved, and, with the 



Coulter Pine, S.ax G.xbriel Molnt.ains, C.-\i,. 



scattered coulter pine growing in the sparse ch.\p.-vrr.\l on the lower slopes .\xd .\long the dry stre.\m 

 beds in the s.\n g.\briel mol'ntains, southern californi.\. both fire .\nd .aridity .-vre responsible 

 for the scanty vegetable growth, and the reforest.\tion of such sites is very difficult. the 

 white stalks seen scattered throughout the picture are the flower stems of the low growing 

 yucca known as spanish bayonet. which are very beautifil when in blossom 



