found in Europe, Spitzbergen, Siberia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland. 

 Sequoia flourished millions of years ago when the dinosaurs were the most ad 

 vanced form of land animals, and before the rocks that constitute the present 

 Sierras and Coast Ranges in California were laid clown in the shallow seas, 

 to be later upheaved and carved to their present shapes. Today only two 

 kinds of Sequoias are in existence and their nearest living relative is the bald 

 cypress of the Southern States. They are the oldest living thing on earth, 

 and have probably never been surpassed by any trees in the ages gone by in 

 size, height or grandeur. 



Redwood 



Redwood (Sequoia semjpervirens) the &quot;Palo Colorado&quot; of the Spanish- 

 Americans, is found in its natural state only on a strip 450 miles long and 

 twenty miles wide, extending from southwestern Oregon to Monterey County 

 in California where it was first discovered in 1791. 



John Muir speaks of the redwood as the glory of the Coast Range. Trees 



from 300 to 350 feet in height and ten to twenty feet in diameter are not 



uncommon and their graceful beauty is enhanced by the garden at their feet 



of fresh, exuberant ferns, lilies and rhododendron. The age is about half 



that of its cousin in the Sierras, running from 500 to 1 300 years. 



Redwood has bright, deep green foliage which consists of two forms of 

 leaves, one of them narrow and flattened with stiff, sharp points and the 

 other scale-like and closely overlapping. The young tree forms an attractive 

 pyramid of dense foliage which becomes conical in appearance as the tree 

 matures. Redwood requires a cool, humid atmosphere for its best develop 

 ment. It has been successfully planted in many parts of the state as avenue 

 and specimen trees. 



Big Tree 



Big tree (Sequoia gigantea) is found only on the western slope of the Sierra 

 Nevadas in California at an altitude of from five to eight thousand feet above 

 the sea, with a north and south range of about 250 miles. It occurs in thirty- 

 two more or less isolated groves, one of the best known being the Calaveras 

 Grove. It is said that the big tree was first discovered in this grove in 1851 

 by a hunter in the pursuit of a bear. 



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