SEQUOIA AND ITS HISTORY. 151 
which we are concerned, we note that each has its own species 
of Pines, Firs, Larches, ete., and of a few deciduous-leaved 
trees such as Oaks and Maples; all of which have no peculiar 
significance for the present purpose, because they are of 
genera which are common all round the northern hemisphere. 
Leaving these out of view, the noticeable point: is that the 
vegetation of California is most strikingly unlike that of the 
Atlantic United States. They possess some plants, and some 
peculiarly American plants in common, — enough to show, as 
I imagine, that the difficulty was not in the getting from the 
one district to the other, or into both from a common source, 
but in abiding there. The primordially unbroken forest of 
Atlantic North America, nourished by rainfall distributed 
throughout the year, is widely separated from the western re- 
gion of sparse and discontinuous tree-belts of the same latitude 
on the western side of the continent, where summer rain is 
wanting, or nearly so, by immense treeless plains and plateaux 
“of more or less aridity, traversed by longitudinal mountain 
ranges of similar character. Their nearest approach is at the 
north, in the latitude of Lake Superior, where, on a more 
rainy line, trees of the Atlantic forest and that of Oregon 
may be said to interchange. The change of species and 
of the aspect of vegetation in crossing, say on the forty- 
seventh parallel, is slight in comparison with that on the 
thirty-seventh or near it. Confining our attention to the lower 
latitude, and under the exceptions already specially noted, 
we may say that almost every characteristic form in the vege- 
tation of the Atlantic States is wanting in California, and 
the characteristic plants and trees of California are wanting 
here. 
California has no Magnolia nor Tulip trees, nor Star-anise- 
tree; no so-called Papaw (Asimina); no Barberry of the 
common single-leaved sort; no Podophyllum or other of the 
peculiar associated genera; no Nelumbo nor White Water- 
lily; no Prickly Ash nor Sumach; no Loblolly-bay nor 
Stuartia; no Basswood nor Linden-trees ; neither Locust, 
Honey-locust, Coffee-trees (Gymnocladus), nor Yellow-wood 
(Cladrastis) ; nothing answering to Hydrangea or Witch- 
