314 The Red- Wood: r lhe Yews. 



but this fades when exposed to light. It grows to ten and fifteen 

 feet in diameter, and in extreme cases it has been seen over twenty 

 feet in diameter and three hundred feet high. The range of this 

 tree is limited to the western slopes of the Coast Range, and upon 

 the metamorphic sandstones, which seem to be almost as essential to 

 their welfare as the ocean fogs. 



1284. The scene presented by a red-wood forest is one of the most 

 impressive kind. "Let one imagine an entire forest, extending as 

 far as the eye can reach, the trees from eight to twelve feet in 

 diameter and from two hundred to three hundred feet in height, 

 thickly grouped, their trunks marvelously straight, not branching 

 till they reach a hundred or a hundred and fifty feet, and then 

 forming a dense canopy that shuts out the view of the sky; the 

 contrast of the bright cinnamon-colored trunks with the somber, 

 deep, yet brilliant green of the boughs ; the utter silence of these for- 

 ests, where often no sound can be heard except the low thunder of 

 the distant ocean," l and one finds a combination of the sublime and 

 the beautiful that woodland soenery nowhere else presents. 



1285. This tree never extends far inland, nor beyond the fogs 

 and rains of the Pacific coast, and it scarcely reaches the line of 

 Oregon on the north. The red-wood has the property not common 

 among the conifers, of sprouting from the stump, and its specific 

 name is derived from this tenacity to life that it shows when cut. 



THE YEW FAMILY (Taxacece). 



1286. This differs- greatly from the other conifers in its fruit, 

 which is reduced to a siugle ovule, which, when ripe, is a hard 

 seed surrounded by a pulpy covering. The leaves are linear, flat, 

 arranged in two rows, and the blossoms are dioecious, solitary, 

 and axillary. There are but two native genera to be noticed in 

 this family. 



1287. THE AMERICAN YEW (Taxus Canadensis) is a prostrate 

 spreading shrub, common throughout the Northern States, and often 

 known as " ground hemlock." It is of no account for its wood, but 

 might be made ornamental in covering rock in parks and other 

 places. 



1288. THE WESTERN YEW (Taxus brevifolia). This is an upright 



1 Whitney's Yoscmite Book, p. 106. 



