200 TAXODIN.E AND ARAUCARINE.E 



America call Cedars — the Red Cedar tree, around 

 which, Tennyson tells us, the red men danced. 



The name Sequoia was bestowed upon them in 

 honour of a certain Cherokee Indian chief who 

 rejoiced in the name of Sequoyah. Now this chief 

 must have been a very remarkable man, with a life- 

 history well worth looking into, but it is not a 

 story here to attempt any exhaustive narration 

 of. He seems to have been a good farmer and 

 successful silversmith, but his accomplishments did 

 not end here. In addition to these two avocations, 

 we read that he contrived to invent an alphabet of 

 his own ; so these trees, the mightiest among trees, 

 without shadow of doubt, obtained their name from 

 a man of no mean or ordinary abilities. 



Between the two Sequoias, while there are great 

 affinities in the shape of their cones and in the colour 

 of their corky, cinnamon, red-brown-coloured trunks, 

 their leaves are as different as, say, the leaves of a 

 Macrocarpa Cypress and a churchyard Yew Tree. 



The leaves of the S. Gigantea (Wellingtonia) are 

 affixed to the herbaceous-looking branchlets that 

 hang out like so many strings of frayed whipcord, 

 and the frayed appearance is caused by the detach- 

 ment of the end of the leaf from the stem, a system 

 which is generally described in the Cypresses as 

 exhibiting freedom at the apex. 



The leaves of the S. Sempervirens upon the lateral 

 branches, on the other hand, recall the leaves of the 

 Yew. At a second glance they are easily discernible 

 from those of the Yew, inasmuch as the Sequoia 

 has pale, but very distinct, white stomatiferous bands 

 upon the under-surface, where the Yew displays a 

 dull yellow colour. Recent observers of the tree in 

 its native country tell us that the leaves on the top 

 of an old Sempervirens show a tendency to assimilate 

 themselves in shape, more in accord with those of 



