VOL. IV.] Native Habits of Sequoia Gigantea. 143 



a former paper in this periodical, and are now well known. But 

 from the inspection of the various localities we can draw some 

 conclusions of general interest. All the groves are protected 

 from the north winds more or less, and all face the south and 

 west. All groves grow where moisture is abundant, always 

 around springs, creeks, ponds or meadows, or at least in places 

 where moisture never fails. If we inspect a single grove we 

 always find the largest, handsomest and healthiest tree near the 

 water, at the edge of a meadow or stream. The further away 

 from the water the drier the soil, the smaller and poorer are the 

 trees. This is an invariable fact in every grove. In many 

 instances the largest and finest trees circle around a beautiful 

 meadow, crowding each other, where space is available, or 

 towering singly where there is only ground enough for one. 

 This is, for instance, the case with the "Meadow Maid," in 

 the Bear Creek grove, one of the handsomest and most sym- 

 metrical of all the Sequoias. This tree grows on a low knoll, in 

 the midst of a meadow which is always boggy and water-soaked. 

 Sequoia trunks and cones have been dug up out of many 

 wells on the plains of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, 

 indisputable proof that the tree in former ages extended to the 

 plains. With the advent of a drier and warmer climate the trees 

 retreated to the hills, higher in the south, lower in the north. 

 At last they became isolated groves, finally, in some localities, 

 isolated trees. Only in the southern groves do we find an abund- 

 ance of young trees; in some of the northern groves we search 

 in vain for any seedlings. What conclusion can we draw from 

 this ? That the Sequoia gigantea delights in rich and wet soil, 

 in sheltered positions, and that it occurs in groves. The folly of 

 planting this tree in dry, exposed places, singly or in rows, as 

 is now done everywhere in this State, as well as in other parts of 

 the United States and in Europe, is therefore evident. The 

 greater the failure, the dryer the soil where the tree is planted. 

 Lately I passed an avenue of Sequoias which were all dying out. 

 The cause lay near at hand — dry soil, no artificial irrigation, no 

 rain for six months, hard adobe soil, full exposure to winds, the 

 trees planted in rows or singly. If these trees had been set in 

 groups of a hundred on rich, moist land, where irrigation can be 



