CHAPTER XIII 



The great Coniferae of our forests are so famous, our mountains are 

 so accessible, and it is so desirable to awaken or foster alove for them, 

 that it seems to me quite legitimate to teach children some of their 

 most notable trees from books and pictures, and from any fragmen- 

 tary specimens, such as cones and the like, that may be available. It 

 would be a dull teacher indeed who would fail to arouse enthusiasm 

 with such a book in hand as John Muir's " Mountains of California," 

 with its chapter on forests. The "big tree," Sequoia gigantea, 

 Decaisne, is, perhaps, of the greatest interest. Handsome young trees 

 of this species are often seen in cultivation, but the native forests 

 exist only in the Sierras at altitudes of from five to eight thousand 

 feet. The leaves are scale-shaped, but have long, pointed tips. The 

 cones are absurdly small, only about two inches long, and have a 

 "quilted appearance," as Miss Eastwood observes. The bark of the 

 older trees is fibrous and very thick ; fragments of it are sold at curio 

 stores. The tallest tree reported is three hundred and twenty-five feet ; 

 Muir mentions one with a diameter of thirty- five feet and eight inches 

 inside the bark four feet from the ground. Trees are known that 

 exceed these in height or in diameter alone, a Eucalyptus over four 

 hundred and fifty feet in height, and a chestnut over sixty feet in 

 diameter being examples ; but, taken as a whole, our tree is probably 

 without a peer. The age of our Sequoias is a matter of dispute, but 

 some of those now standing are believed to have been flourishing 

 trees before the Christian era. These mere figures will, of course, 

 mean little to children unless vivified by descriptions and by com- 

 parison with known objects. The pamphlets advertising routes of 

 travel to these sections supply some striking comparisons. The 

 following bit of description is from Muir : " The young trees have 

 slender, simple branches down to the ground, put on with strict regu- 

 larity. By the time the sapling is five or six hundred years old, the 

 spiry, juvenile habit merges into the firm, rounded, dome-form of 

 middle age, which in turn takes on the eccentric picturesqueness of 

 old age. ' ' That millions of seeds are ripened in a single year is literally 

 true, and although the squirrels may have ninety-nine out of every 

 hundred, there are still more than enough to keep our forests well 

 supplied with new trees, if only the devastation of shepherds and 

 lumber men can be checked. 



Great forests of Redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, Endl., occupy 

 our coast ranges from Oregon to San Luis Obispo. These trees, too, 

 are giants, being from two to three hundred feet high and from eight 

 to twelve feet in diameter. The children are pretty sure to know 

 something of their value. Pictures and descriptions of lumbering 



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