76 
20 feet. On the slopes its maximum height is 225 feet and its 
greatest diameter 10 feet. Most of the large redwoods are from 
400 to 800 years old, but the trees begin to die down and growth 
falls off after the age of 500 years has been reached. The oldest 
redwood recorded in the above work showed 1373 annual rings. 
The chief requirement of the redwood is moisture at the roots 
and the nature of the soil appears to be a matter of secondary con- 
sideration. According to the Bulletin mentioned above, “ moisture 
available for the roots is the first need of the redwood, as any hilly 
tract of forest will show. Whenever a small gully, or bench, or 
basin is so placed as to receive an uncommon amount of seepage, or 
wherever a creek flows by, there the trees are sure to be largest. 
Even if the soil be not rich, but merely gravel, and it contains 
much moisture, the redwood will grow more abundantly there than 
on richer but drier ground.” 
Although the redwood may be propagated from seeds, forests 
are usually replenished by means of sprouts from the old stumps 
left after felling operations. These sprouts are produced very 
freely and grow rapidly. Several plates in the Bulletin show how 
the forest is reproduced by this means. The yield of virgin red- 
woods under the most favourable conditions is given at from 125,000 
to 150,00 cubic feet per acre. In less favoured places it is some- 
times as low as 20,000. These figures appear to represent the 
quantity of timber actually marketed. 
Sequoia sempervirens is naturally a light demanding subject, but it 
is said that trees which have been partly suppressed have the 
faculty of recovering quickly and growing away again freely as 
soon as more room and light is given. The wood and its uses are 
spoken of as follows :—* Redwood possesses qualities which fit it 
for many uses. In colour it shades from light cherry to dark 
mahogany : its grain is usually straight, fine, and even; its weight 
is light ; its consistency firm, yet soft. It is easily worked, takes a 
beautiful polish, and is the most durable of the coniferous woods of 
California. It resists decay so well that trees which have lain five 
hundred years in the forest have been sent to the mill and sawed © 
into lumber. The wood is without resin and offers a strong resist- 
ance to fire, as is indicated by the record of fires in San Francisco, 
where it is much used. Insects seldom injure it, because of an acid 
element its lumber contains. In sea water, however, the marine 
teredo eats off redwood piling as readily as other timber. Redwood 
is used for all kinds of finishing and construction lumber, for shingles, 
railroad ties, electric-light poles, paving blocks, tanks, and pipe 
staves. It is an excellent wood for all these purposes. As a tie its 
average life, under heavy traffic, is six to eight years; as shingles 
it will last as long as 40 years. The chief difficulty in working 
redwood lies in the seasoning process. The tree absorbs so much 
moisture that the butt logs will sink in water. Left in the sun, they 
require three or four years to dry.” 
solated specimens in this country often lose their tops by wind, 
hence the necessity for forming pure rather than mixed plantations, 
and planting in valleys rather than on exposed hill sides. 
Tue Decipuous Crpress (Tazodium distichum, Rich.),—The 
many fine examples of this species which are to be found in the British 
