i6 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



Redwood. 

 sriiiiiiiii KCmiiciiirciia — Emll. 

 Till- ilisli-iliiitioii of redwood is aloiin llir 

 si.iitlicni holder of Orojjoii, south ■ near t!>^ 

 Pacific coast to Monterey county, Calit'ornia ; 

 it is rarely found more tlian twenty or tliirty 

 miles from the coast, or l>ey(md the influence 

 of the fogs from the ocean, and seldom more 

 than 3000 foot above the level of 

 tlu' sea; in northern ('alif<Hina if 

 often forms pure forests which oc 

 cupy the sides of ravines and hanks 

 of streams; further south it com- 

 monly grows in small groves inter 

 mingled with other trees, ami 

 reiiches its maximum develoi)meut 

 mirth of Cajie Mendocino; in this 

 seelicni also the largest stands are 

 fiuiml. 



Tin- tree is c<inuiHmly known as 

 redwood, although in California the 

 generic name Sequoia is often ap- 

 |,lieil to it, as is also the term coast 

 reilwood; abroad it is usually called 

 California redwood. 11 is often 

 cultivated outside its natural range 

 of growth, and several varieties are 

 distinguishable nnder different con 

 ditions; they are the SrijKoiu .«/» 

 Iierviffnn irnicili.i, ta.rifolki, atl- 

 Ijrcxsa, picUi. aWo-spim and (/tauca. 



The leaves of redwood are ever- 

 green, from one to three quarters of 

 an inch long, smooth, sharply point 

 ed, and of a deep, lustrous olivi' 

 gresn color above, and covered with 

 a whitish bloom. The miinite llowers 

 o))en in late winter or early spring; 

 thi' standnate onesar.i ovatct and ob- 

 tuse : the pistillate have many broad- 

 Iv ovate acute scales tipped with 

 points. The fruit is an oblong, 

 woody cone from three-(iuarters to 

 one inch long and half an inch 

 broad; it has thick scabs, and the 

 seeds are only about a sixteenth of 

 an inch in length and winged. 



The hark of redwood is from six 

 to twelve inches thick, and forms in 

 riilges two to four feet i\ide. which 

 si'parate in long narrow liiu's trans 

 versely. clisclosiug the bright red 

 inn.'V hark when drop])ing ctf. 



Tin' t ree grows from :iOI) to o.jlj 

 fi'ct high, and has a tapering, ir- 

 regularly lobed trunk which is 

 usually devoid of branches for T.^ to lOlt 

 feet. Its diameter at the base is usually 

 from 111! to fifteen feet, although specimens 

 have heen seen which meiisuri'd twenty-eight. 

 While the tree is young its hranclu's form a 

 ii:iirow pyramidal head, while on old trees 

 the top lii'comes narrow, compact and irregu- 

 lar, and apjiears very small in proportion to 

 the gre:it height and size of the trunk. 



The wood of the S< ijiinid si miK-rviroiil is 



SIMV-IOURIH PAl'Lk. 



the softest kiuiwn to i-omnierce; sjilinters can 

 he leleased with the hug. rnnil. It has a line- 

 lustrous surface, and t;ikes a liigli |iolish. hiil 

 is very coarse-celled; the rings are plainly 

 visible. Tt is light, not strong, close-grained, 

 easily split and worked. \ciy dnralile in c(Ui 

 t;icl with the soil, and is largely mamifac 

 tared into hunher and used for shingi s. 



TVI'K 



puor 



•AL FOKICST (JROWTII ,'iE(/VOIA .'iL.U l'i:U\ J 1/ 



■Eirry I'.iv/i-'/c lbr. co., hlmboldt co., c 



fence-posts, railway-ties and building. In 

 color it is a light red; it has no odor and is 

 slightly astringent to the taste. Curly grain 

 is frequently met with in redwood htinlier, 

 and is anxiously sought by manufacturers of 

 fancy funuture and cabinet work. 



California alone sends to the greedy mar- 

 kets of the country this newest of all lumber, 

 made from the oldest of all trees — trees of a 

 forgotten era in the liistorv of the earth. 



Stamling aloiu' of their kind, no living rep- 

 iisentatives may lunv be found outside the 

 horders of that .state, where tliey have sur- 

 \ived the cataclysms that de.stroyed th'ir 

 nohli' fellows in others parts of the world. 



In niiijesly and grandeur of projiortions 

 tile Sciiioiu .icmpcrviri'im, and th? Wi-lliiui- 

 liiiiiii or famous Big Tree, lead the entire 

 realm cd' forest giants. No otlnns 

 eonihinc such massiveness with such 

 liioghi. and in age they likewise 

 sui'pass all others. Muir estimates 

 their limit at 5,000 years, and be- 

 ll wes that many now standing have 

 ii'aehed it; in some of the stunijis 

 1,111111 animal rings have been count- 

 ed. Kidges in the earth within the 

 Sciitioid hi'lt coutJiin the fallen 

 bodies of far removed generations, 

 which fact leads him to deduce 

 that till' area in which they are 

 found has not slirnnki'u since the 

 glacial period — that the great trees 

 Icive held their own for perhaps 

 lii.lllHl years. 



TIk' genus S'-iinuin was widely 

 scattered over the northern hemi 

 s|iliere during the cretaceous and 

 tertiary epochs, and is known to 

 have reached as far north as the 

 Arctic Circle, as did many of the 

 plants .and animals of the tem- 

 perate zone before the age of ic2 

 overwhelmed them. The rocks pre- 

 serve the story of this great climatic 

 reconstruction, and in them five dis- 

 tinct species of ScqnoUi are record- 

 ed, among them H'cllinf/tonia and 

 SI ntperrirens, the two sole survivors 

 of the proudest family of plants the 

 earth has ever produced. 



•'In a belt 'MO miles long an.i 

 twenty wide survive the forests 

 through whose aisles (jiice roamed 

 I he prehistoric mammoth, the cave 

 bear and the three-toed horse. What 

 stories could these trees reveal to tic 

 delver into the past were but the 

 ] lower of speech given, or better 

 were it to say, could the language of 

 their whispering tops be under- 

 stood. Who can tell wdiat has pas.sed 

 since the day when thes? giants of 

 the forest .started from the ground 

 as bright green shoots' Nations 

 have changed, dynasties have risen 

 ;ni(l fallen, luinian hi.story and earth's geog- 

 raphy have been as the rcdling waves of the 

 sea besi.de the lives of these mysterious relics 

 of the jiast. llere dwells mystery. But the 

 iconoclast hand of man has torn the veU and 

 commerce is driving back the shade into the 

 legions whence it came and sending to the 

 busy haunts of man those patriarchs of the 

 tree world with their traditions of the be- 

 ginning of time, some of which the Creator 



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