54 TAXODIACEAE 



spreading liorizontnlly from the axis of the eone and developed into broad 

 flattish sumniits. Ovules to each scale 2 to 9. Seeds not winged or merely 

 margined. — Seven genera, widely scattered over the earth, each with 1 to 

 3 species. Taxodium (Bald Cypress), Cryptomeria (Japan Cedar), Ci^nning- 

 hamia. and Sciadopitys (Umbrella Pine) are cultivated in California. 



Bibliog. — Gray, Asa, Sequoia ami Its History (Proe. Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci. vol. 21, p. 1, — 

 1872; Sci. Pap. vol. 2, p. 142,-1889). Big Tree, U. S. Div. For. Bull. no. 28 (1900). Red- 

 wood, U, S. Bur. For. Bull. no. 38 (1903). 



SEQUOIA Endl. Redwood. 

 Tall trees with thick red fibrous bark and linear, awl-shaped, or scale-like 

 leaves. Staminate catkins terminal, with many spirally disposed stamens, 

 each bearing 2 to 5 pollen sacs. Ovulate catkins terminal, composed of many 

 spirally arranged scales, each with 5 to 7 ovules at base. Cone woody, its 

 scales divergent at right angles to the axis, widening upward and forming a 

 broad rhomboidal wrinkled summit with a depressed center. Seeds flattened; 

 cotyledons 4 to 6. — Two species. (Sequoia, a chief of the Cherokecs, who 

 invented an alphabet for his tribe.) 



Leaves awl-shaped, ascending all around stem; cones 2 to S% inches long; Sierra Nevada 

 only 1. S. gigantea. 



Leaves linear, petioled, spreading in 2 ranks and forming a flat spray; cones % to 1% inches 

 long ; Coast Ranges only 2. S. sempervirens. 



1. S. gigantea Dec. Big Tree. Giant tree 100 to 325 feet high with col- 

 umns SO to 225 feet to the first limb and 5 to 30 feet in diameter at 6 feet 

 above the ground; crowTi rounded at summit or much broken in age: bark red, 

 deeply furrowed or fluted, Vo to 2 feet thick ; leaves awl-like. 1 to 6 lines long, 

 only the tips free, adherent below to the stem which they thickly clothe ; cones 

 maturing in the second autumn, red-brown, ovoid, 2 to 3% inches long, com- 

 posed of 35 to 40 scales; scales with transversely rhomboidal summits and 

 a centrally depressed umbo ; seeds numerous, flattened, margined all around 

 with a wing, ovatish or oblong in outline, 21/. to 3 lines long. 



Western slope of the Sierra Nevada, 5,000 to 8,000 feet, from Placer Co. 

 southward to Tulare Co., a longitudinal range of 250 miles but occurring in 

 more or less widely disconnected and limited areas called "groves," thirty-two 

 in number. The northern groves, i. e., north of King's River, are widely sep- 

 arated; the southern groves are less widely separated or even connected by 

 scattered individuals and form an interrupted belt. 



The north groves are as follows: 1. North Grove, Placer Co.. 10 miles 

 east of IMichigan Bluff, 6 trees. 2. Calaver.vs Grove (type loc, Wm. Lobb), 

 51 acres, 101 trees. 3. Stanislaus Grove, 6 miles southeast of Calaveras 

 Grove, 1,000 acres, 1,380 trees. 4. Tuolumne Grove, "Big Oak Flat"- 

 Yosemite stage road, IV2 miles northwest of Crane Flat. 10 acres, 40 trees. 

 5. Merced Gro\% Coulterville-Yosemite wagon road, 3 miles from Hazel 

 Green, 20 acres, 33 trees. 6. Mariposa Grove, in Yosemite National Park, 

 near Wawona, really consisting of two groves, 365 trees in upper grove, 182 

 trees in lower grove, one of these being the "Grizzly Giant"; 125 acres. 7. 

 Fresno Grove, in Madera Co., near north line, 2,500 acres, 1,500 trees; many 

 trees lumbered. 



The south groves are as follows: 8. Dinkey Grove, in Sierra National 

 Forest, Fresno Co., 50 acres, 170 trees. 9. Con\'erse Basin Forest, Kings 



II 



