1660 



SEQUOIA 



SEQUOIA 



231S. 



Sequoia sempervirens 



(X Vs.) 



but cut off, swept away and destroyed by the glacial age 

 until only the local conditions prevailing in the Coast 

 Range and Sierras of California preserved the two re- 

 maining species to the present time. According to 

 Gray, S. Langsdorfii, the Sequoia which is found in 

 the miocene in Europe, appears in the miocene of 

 Alaska, Greenland, Spitzbergen and Iceland, and it 

 much resembles S. 

 sempervirens. An- 

 other fossil species, 

 S. Sternhergii, found 

 in Greenland, seems 

 to have been the an- 

 cient representative 

 of S. gigantea. Ac- 

 cording to the investi- 

 gations of the United 



States Geological Department, the wood 

 of the Arizona petrified forest is that of 

 a species of Sequoia, whose wood want 

 down under a primeval sea, was covered 

 with sandstone, and rose again into the 

 ■present continent. If one asks how long 

 ago these things happened, the geologist an- 

 swers, "Millions of years." And it is the same 

 in regard to the period when Sequoias grew in 

 Greenland, Siberia and Great Britain. We can 

 measure that period only by vast and indefinite 

 epochs. But the value and interest of the Se- 

 quoias are greatly increased by a consideration of 

 their place as the last modern survivors of so 

 powerful an ancient family. 



At the present time the Coast Redwood occupies only 

 a narrow belt of country near the ocean, nor is it con- 

 tinuous even there; the Giant Redwood, or California 

 Big Tree, exists only in a few small and isolated groves, 

 covering in all less than fifty square miles along the 

 western side of the Sierra Nevada range. Compared 

 with the enormous territory once occupied by species of 

 Sequoias, the modern representatives of this ancient 

 and honorable family are reduced to a very small area. 



The first known of the Sequoias, and much the more 

 valuable species, economically speaking, was »S. semper- 

 virens, the Coast Redwood of California. This is one of 

 the most important timber trees of the world, and its 

 forests, comparatively limited in area, have yielded and 

 are yielding the most easily obtained, the most durable 

 and most profitable fencing and building lumber of the 

 Pacific coast. The reproductive powers of the tree are 

 enormous ; no other known conifer so persistently 

 sprouts from the stump, so rapidly makes new forest, 

 or so well resists fire. But it does not thrive farther 

 inland than the limits of the sea-fog, and a large part 

 of the original area covered by this noble tree has been 

 denuded by successive fires and destructive lumbering 

 methods. Small Redwood forests occur in Monterey 

 county, but the most southern forests of commercial 

 importance are in Santa Cruz. The belt, broken by the 

 Bay of San Francisco, extends north through Marin, 

 Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte to the 

 southern borders of Oregon. The real Redwood forests 

 are all contained within a strip of coast lands 500 miles 

 long and rarely more than 20 or 25 miles wide. The 

 actual bodies of Redwood within this region are merely 

 a chain of isolated groups separated by clearings or by 

 large areas on which Redwoods never grew. A small 

 grove, now practically destroyed, existed fifty years ago 

 on the east side of the Bay of San Francisco, in Ala- 

 meda county. Well-borers have found Redwood logs in 

 a perfect state of preservation in various parts of the 

 Coast Range far south of where the tree now grows, 

 even to Los Angeles and San Diego, showing that in 

 some former period of greater rainfall and more sea-fog, 

 Redwood forests extended much farther along the coast. 

 _ The climate where the Redwood thrives is compara- 

 tively equable, marked by cool summer winds from the 

 southwest. The tree delights in rich, sheltered moun- 

 tain valleys and fertile slopes, in dripping fogs and in 

 heavy winter rains. Going c^ast from the ocean, in the 

 Redwood region, one suddenly comes to the top of a 

 ridge, to overlook oaks and pines, and at once reaches 

 the plainly marked edge of the Sequoia sempervirens 

 forest. 



While S. sempervirens is sometimes called second in 

 size among the giant conifers of the Pacific coast, the 

 tallest tree yet authentically measured was 340 ft. high, 

 exceeding in height the tallest of the Sierra species, and 

 it is probable that trees exist which rise to nearly 400 ft. 

 and so deserve to take the first place among the conifers. 

 Many trees of 20 and even 22 ft. in diameter at five feet 

 from the ground, and from 300 to 325 ft. in height, are 

 still standing in the Redwood forests. The finest groves 

 of Redwoods contain many specimens that range from 

 150 to 250 ft. or more in height and have a diameter of 

 from 12 to 18 ft. In such forests the trunks rise in clear, 

 red-brown shafts to a height of from 75 to 150 ft. before 

 they branch; they stand so close that the masses of 

 timber that exist on each acre are greater than are 

 found in any other known forest, and through their far- 

 distant tops the sun seldom reaches the warm, sheltered 

 soil of the great Coast Range Canons. With proper 

 management, under the principles of scientific forestry, 

 the Redwood region as it exists to-day could be main- 

 tained, and its future yield greatly increased, but other- 

 wise in forty or fifty years the commercial value of the 

 entire area will be practically destroyed. The state of 

 California has this year (1901) appropriated $250,000 for 

 the purchase of the large Redwood forest of the "Big 

 Basin" in Santa Cruz county, and a commission is now 

 arranging to create a State Redwood Park there. 



Sequoia sempervirens was discovered by Archibald 

 Menzies in 1795, rediscovered by David Douglas in 1831, 

 and soon after by Dr. Coulter. It was introduced to- 

 European gardens by Hartweg about 1847. Both Douglas 

 and Hartweg were sent out by the Royal Horticultural 

 Society of London. S. semj^ervirens^'ar. adjrressa (Car- 

 riere) is a smaller tree than the type form, with creamy 

 white younger leaves and more glaucescent older leaves. 

 It is called in California the "White Redwood " and the 

 "Silver-leaf Redwood." Other horticultural varieties in 

 cultivation are known as Sempiervirens gracilis, S. taxi- 

 folia, S. picta, S. albo-spica and S.glanca. The golden 

 forms found in many other conifers occasionally appear, 

 but cannot yet be called fixed. No really dwarf Red- 

 wood is yet extant. Larger-leaved or more compact 

 forms can be selected from the forest, and the tree re- 

 sponds easily to selection and culture. It thrives in 

 gardens in the Sacramento valley, in the Sierra foot- 

 hills and in many parts of southern California, so that 

 its range for ornamental uses can be greatly extended 

 on the Pacific coast. It has been largely planted in 

 Europe, particularly in English parks, and, as was to 

 have been expected, does best in well-drained rich soil 

 near the ocean but sheltered from cold winds. 



Endlicher's Sequoia gigantea (the iS. Washingtonia 

 of Sudworth and the S. Wellingtonia of Seemann and of 



2319. Sequoia gigantea (X %K 



Sargent) is undoubtedly one of the rarest of all living 

 species of trees, and one of the most easily visited and 

 studied. It is the best living representative of a geologic 

 age long passed away. Besides tliis, it is the most im- 

 pressive and noble of all known trees. But nearly all 

 of the small remaining group of Big Trees except the 

 Mariposa groves are owned by private individuals and 

 are being cut down or mav at some future time be de- 



