60 
The wood of Tumion Californicum is light, soft, close-graimed, and not strong. 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
TAXACES. 
It is a clear 
light yellow, with thin nearly white sapwood, and contains numerous obscure medullary rays and broad 
although not conspicuous bands of small summer cells. 
It is very durable in contact with the soil, and 
has a fine satiny surface susceptible of receivmg a handsome polish. The specific gravity of the 
absolutely dry wood is 0.4760, a cubic foot weighing 29.66 pounds. 
posts." 
It is occasionally used for fence- 
It is not known who discovered Tumion Californicum.’ It was introduced into English gardens 
in 1851 by William Lobb,’ and is occasionally cultivated in European collections, where, although it 
has produced its flowers,’ it does not grow with much vigor or promise to acquire the beauty which 
distinguishes this noble tree in the forests of northern California. 
1 The log specimen of Tumion Californicum in the Jesup Collec- 
tion of North American Woods in the American Museum of Natu- 
ral History in New York is fourteen and one quarter inches in 
diameter inside the bark, and is two hundred and seven years old, 
the layers of annual growth having steadily diminished in thickness 
after the first forty years. 
2 In 1853 Dr. Torrey received from a Mr. Sheldon specimens of 
Tumion Californicum which had been collected on the headwaters 
of the Feather and Yuba Rivers on the Sierra Nevada, with the 
information that the tree had been discovered two or three years 
previously, and had attracted considerable attention owing to the 
resemblance of its seeds to those of the Nutmeg. At about the 
same time seedling plants raised in the Parsons’ Nursery in Flush- 
ing, New York, were seen by Dr. Torrey. (See N. Y. Jour. 
Pharm. iii. 49.) 
3 William Lobb (1809-1863), a native of Cornwall, applied him- 
self to gardening as a young man, and entered the Veitchs’ nursery 
at Exeter, where he devoted his leisure time to the study of bot- 
any. In 1840 he was sent by Mr. Veitch to South America for the 
purpose of collecting plants. Arriving in Rio de Janeiro, he ex- 
plored the Orgios Mountains, where he discovered a number of 
orchids and the beautiful Pleroma elegans. From Brazil he went 
to Buenos Ayres, crossed by the pampas and the Chilian Andes to 
Valparaiso, and then visited the forests of Araucaria imbricata to 
gather seeds of that conifer, which had previously been extremely 
rare in European plantations. He afterwards proceeded to Peru 
and Ecuador, and for two years collected plants on the Pacific 
coast. Returning to England in 1844, he sailed again for Brazil in 
April of the following year, and then went to Valparaiso for the 
purpose of exploring southern Chili, a region at that time little 
known to botanists. From Chili he introduced into cultivation at 
this time Lapageria rosea, Escallonia macrantha, Philesia buzifolia, 
Embothrium coccineum, Desfontainea spinosa, and several other 
plants, which have retained popular favor for garden decoration. 
He continued his explorations in Valdivia, Chiloe, and northern 
Patagonia, whence he introduced Libocedrus cupressoides, Fitzroya 
Patagonica, Saxegothea conspicua, Podocarpus nubigena, and the 
beautiful Berberis Darwinii. 
In 1848 Lobb returned to England, and was sent by Mr. Veitch 
to California to collect seeds of the then rare conifers known to 
science, and, if possible, to discover others. He landed in San 
Francisco in the autumn of 1849, and remained in California and 
Oregon for the remainder of his life, introducing into English gar- 
dens Abves venusta, Abies magnifica, Abies concolor, and Sequoia Wel- 
lingtonia. Of this last-named tree, he first sent cones and seeds to 
England, and when he returned home for a short visit in 1854, car- 
In 1857 his connection with the 
Veitchs terminated ; but he remained in California, and died of 
William Lobb was one of the most 
successful of the botanists and explorers who helped to make 
ried with him two living plants. 
paralysis in San Francisco. 
known the trees of western North America, and in this connection 
his name will always be gratefully remembered with those of 
Douglas and Jeffrey. 
* Gard. Chron. ser. 3, v. 800, f£. 126, 127. 
EXPLANATION 
OF THE PLATE. 
Puate DXIII. Tumion Carirornicum. 
. A stamen, enlarged. 
OHARA TNPE HON PR 
. Winter-buds, natural size. 
. A flowering branch of the staminate tree, natural size. 
A staminate flower, enlarged. 
A flowering branch of the pistillate tree, natural size. 
. A pistillate flower, enlarged. 
. A fruiting branch, natural size. 
. Vertical section of a fruit, natural size. 
An embryo, much magnified. 
