No. 8.] IIEER — GIANT TKEES OF CALIFORNIA. 4G5 



THE SEQUOIAS OR GIANT TREES OF CALIFORNIA. 



By Prof. 0. Heer. 



(Read before the Botanical Section of the Swiss Natural History Society.) 

 [Translated by W. B. Dawson.] , 



The Sequoia belongs to that most beautiful and widespread 

 tribe, the Conifers ; and I therefore take the liberty of bringing 

 before your notice a description of these giant trees. 



The name itself deserves consideration. It is that of an 

 Indian of the Cherokee tribe, Sequo Yah, who invented an 

 alphabet without any aid from the outside world of culture, and 

 taught it to his tribe by writing it upon leaves. This came into 

 general use among the Cherokees, before the white man had any 

 knowledge of it ; and afterwards, in 1828, a periodical was pub- 

 lished in this character by the missionaries. Sequo Yah was 

 banished from his home in Alabama, with the rest of his tribe, 

 and settled in New Mexico, where he died in 1843. 



AYhen Endlicher was preparing his synopsis of the Conifers, in 

 1846, and had established a number of new irenera, Dr. Jacbon 

 Tscliudi, the present Swiss ambassador at Vienna, who was then 

 livino; with Endlicher, brought before his notice this remarkable 

 man, and asked him to dedicate this red-wooded tree to the 

 memory of a literary genius so conspicuous among the red men 

 of America. Endlicher consented to do so, and only endeavored 

 to make the name pronounceable by changing two of its letters. 

 The tribe of the Cherokees is dying out, and with it, its lan- 

 guage ; biTt Sequo Yah's name will live as the designation of the 

 giant trees of his country. 



Endlicher has founded the Genus on the Redwood of the 

 Americans, Taxodium scmj^ervirens of Lamb ; and has called 

 the species Sequoia sempervirens. These trees form large forests 

 in California, which extend along the coast as far as Oregon. 

 Trees arc there met with of 300 feet in height and 20 feet in 

 diameter. The seeds have been brought to Europe a number of 

 years ago, and we already see in upper Italy and around the 

 Lake of Geneva high trees; but, on the other hand, they have 

 not proved successful around Zurich. 



In 1852, a second species of Sequoia was discovered in Cali- 

 fornia, which, under the name of Big Tree, soon attained a 

 Vol. IX. DD Xo. 8. 



