THE GYMNOSPERM TREES 



269 



The Redwoods 



Redwoods and big trees {Sequoia) have linear, awl-shaped, 

 or scale like leaves (fig. 189). These may be spirally arranged or 

 borne in two ranks. The cones are made up of thick woody 

 scales which are wedge or shield-shaped. Since the leaves and 

 cones grow so far above man's reach, the bark becomes a valuable 

 identifying feature. It is reddish brown, fibrous, and deeply 

 furrowed, on old trees reaching a two foot thickness. 



The Sequoias include only two living species, both of which 

 are confined to rather limited areas in California, in contrast to 



Fig. 189. — Redwoods and big trees differ in both leaf and cone characters; A, 



big tree; B, redwood. 



their former wide distribution throughout the Northern Hemi- 

 sphere. The REDWOOD, often distinguished as the coast redwood, 

 is striking because of its great height — measured to three hundred 

 sixty four feet, — and its deeply furrowed, reddish brown bark, 

 which in old trees is very highly fire resistant. Its range is con- 

 fined to a strip of coast thirty miles wide and about four hundred 

 fifty miles long, from the Oregon border southward to central 

 California — a region visited almost nightly during the growing 

 season by very heavy fogs. In this very limited area, however, 

 redwood occurs in such abundance as to make up 80% of the 

 forest growth, and constitute 2>}i% of all the standing timber in 

 the United States! The tree does not reproduce itself well by seed, 



