206 JBotan^ 



standing l)et\yeen the firs and c^'pressos. The Cali- 

 fornia redwood, one of the two varieties of sequoia, 

 grows to gigantic size ; a trunk is recorded two hun- 

 dred and seventy feet high and fifteen feet in 

 diameter, and even this enormous height and girth 

 are said to have been surpassed. 



The redwood bark gives the tree its common 

 name, being red, hke the Scotch fir, deeply ridged 

 and twisted, as is to be expected of the scarred and 

 wrinkled veteran of so nmn}^ ages. When the 

 sequoias are young the}" are very graceful and beau- 

 tiful, bearing their branches in a regular cone shape, 

 the lower ones sweeping the ground ; the leaves are 

 flat, linear, and very glossy, while from under the 

 twigs hang the cones, nearly two inches long, bluish- 

 green when young, and of a rich seal-brown in 

 maturity. The catkins are on the tips of the twigs, 

 appear in June, are round, and of a light-brown 

 shade. 



The botanical name of this tree, sequoia semper- 

 virens, refers to its perennial green. It flourishes 

 best on the California coast-line. Long-lived and 

 majestic as this tree is, its cousin, the other sequoia, 

 known as the gigantea, surpasses it in size. This is 

 a native of the mountains, growing on the slopes of 

 the Sierra Nevada range. The gigantea is a social 

 tree, seldom found, solitary ; it is best shown in 



