FOEEIGN NOTICES. 



ToH'm KotIee,s. 



A GiGAXTic Califoexian Evergeeex Tree — The Wellixgtoxia gigaxtea. — Uuder 

 this imposing title the Gardeners' Chronicle notices a new tree discovered by Mr. William 

 LoBB, well knQwn as tlie collector of the Messrs. Veitch. This is probably the most mag- 

 nificent tree of the Californian. forests ; and the fact of its being discovered, named, and 

 introduced in England before we have heard a word of it in this country, shows how far 

 we are behind England in botanical and arboricultural enterprise. Long ago our govern- 

 ment should have sent competent collectors to explore the vast forests of California and 

 Oregon, and bring their treasures to the light of day. Had they done so, this gigantic ever- 

 green might have been known under an American instead of an English name. As it is, 

 however, we rejoice to hear of its introduction. "We copy the following account of it from 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle: 



" When the unfortunate Douglas was last in California, he wrote thus in a letter to Sir Wm. 

 Hooker, of a coniferous tree inhabiting that country : ' But the great beauty of Californian vege 

 tation is a species of Taxodium, which gives the mountains a most peculiar, I was almost going to 

 say awful appearance — something which plainly tells us we are not in Europe. I have repeatedly 

 measured specimens of this tree 270 feet long and 32 feet round at three feet above the ground. 

 Some few I saw upwards of 300 feet high, but none in which the thickness was greater than 

 those I have instanced.' What was that tree ? Ko seeds or specimens ever reached Europe, 

 although it appears that he possessed both. 



" The late Professor Exdlicher referred Douglas' plant to Scqitoia, calling it gigantea, and 

 framing his distinctive character upon the representation of a supposed Taxodium sempervirens, 

 figured in Hooker's "Icones," t. 3*79, from Douglas' last collections. But that plate, although 

 with neither flowers nor fruit, represents beyond all question a branchlet of Abies hracteata. It 

 is therefore evident that no materials exist for determining what Douglas really meant by his 

 " Taxodium," which may or may not have belonged to that genus, or, as Exdlicuee conjectured, 

 to Sequoia. But species in natural history can not be founded upon conjecture. 



" The other day we received from Mr. Veitch branches and cones of a most remarkable conif- 

 erous tree from California, seeds and a living specimen of which liad just been brought him by 

 his excellent collector Mr. Wii. Lobb, who, we are happy to say, has returned loaded with fine 

 things. Of that tree Mr. Lobb has furnished the following account : 



" 'This magnificent evergreen tree, from its extraordinary height and large dimensions, may be 

 termed the monarch of the Californian forest. It inhabits a solitary district on the elevated 

 slopes of the Sierra Nivada, near the head waters of the Stanislau and San Antonio rivers, in lat. 

 38" N., long. 120" 10' W., at an elevation of 5000 feet from the level of the sea. From eighty to 

 ninety trees exist, all within the circuit of a mile, and these varying from 250 feet to 320 feet in 

 height and from 10 to 20 feet in diameter. Their manner of growth is much like Sequoia {Taxo- 

 dium) sempervirens, some are solitary, some are in pairs, while some, and not unfrequently, stand 

 three and four together. A tree recently felled measured about 300 feet in length, with a diam- 

 eter, including bark, 29 feet 2 inches, at five feet from the ground ; at eighteen feet from the 

 ground it was 14 feet 6 inches through ; at one hundred feet from the ground, 14 feet ; and at 

 two hundred feet from the ground, 5 feet 5 inches. The bark is of a pale cinnamon brown, and 

 from 12 to 15 inches in thickness. The branchlets are round, somewhat pendant, and resembling 



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