STUDIES ON THE COAST REDWOOD, 

 SEQUOIA SEMPERVIRENS ENDL. 



BY GEORGE JAMES PEIRCE. 



Associate Professor of Plant Physiology in the Leland Stanford Junior University. 



CONTENTS. 

 Plate XIV. 



Page. 



I. The Vegetative Mode of Reproduction in the Redwood. . . 83 

 II. Peculiarities of Some Vegetatively Produced Young 



Redwoods 88 



A. Fasciation 88 



B. Albinism 89 



III. The Significance of the White Redwoods in Connection 



with our Conceptions of Parasitism and of Heredity 100 



I. The Vegetative Mode of Reproduction in the 



Redwood. 



The coast redwood {^Sequoia sempervirens Endl.) is one 

 of the comparatively few coniferous plants which reproduce 

 themselves vegetatively by suckers. The majority of the 

 Coniferas multiply only sexually, by seeds. Seeds offer the 

 means by which plants may be carried in the dormant or 

 resting condition for long distances, thus permitting ex- 

 tended distribution. If the seeds retain their vitality, they 

 offer also the means b}'^ which the species as well as the life 

 of the individual may be maintained for long periods. A 

 forest composed of other coniferous trees than the redwood 

 will usually come to an end when the trees are felled. The 

 coniferous forest may be succeeded by a wholly worthless 

 growth of "scrub" oaks and other deciduous leaved plants, 

 as for example on the Ossipee Plains in southeastern New 

 Hampshire, or by hardwood forest of diverse composition, 

 as in other parts of New England, or it may be followed by 

 desolation, bare sand or rock, as in the region around 

 Truckee and about Lake Tahoe in California and Nevada. 

 Not so with the redwood forest. 



(83] March 14, 1901, 



