SEQUOIA SEMPERVIRENS. 273 



extending to Spitzbergen and also to Greenland ; and even earlier in 

 central Europe. But from the time of its greatest development in 

 Miocene times the Redwood gradually disappeared from the vast area 

 over which it was once spread till it finally receded to the strip of 

 territory along the Pacific coast of North America, a most significant 

 fact in its history which of itself portends its ultimate extinction. 



But a process of destruction far more rapid than that provided by 

 Nature has been in operation ever since the occupation of the country 

 by the white settlers. The Redwood is the most valuable of all the 

 California!! timber trees ; it is the most common building material of 

 the State, and it is used for every description of out-of-door carpentry. 

 The wood is close-grained and splits with peculiar facility by means of 

 wedges, so that planks can be made from it without the use of the 

 saw ; it is durable in contact with the soil and it is therefore exten- 

 sively used for fencing and railway ties ; it is of a beautiful red colour 

 and susceptible of a high polish, qualities which render it peculiarly 

 adapted for all kinds of domestic furniture, and so highly valued is 

 Redwood timber beyond the range of its native forests, that it is 

 exported to Australia, the Pacific Islands, to China, and even occasion- 

 ally to Europe.* To supply the enormous and ever-increasing demand 

 and owing, too, to the accessibility of the Redwood forests, due to their 

 proximity to the coast and to their being traversed by numerous streams, 

 the consumption of Redwood timber is proceeding at a rate that would 

 almost exceed belief were it not attested by reliable statistics, and by 

 the testimony of those who have witnessed its destruction. " The 

 felling of the monster trees and the manufacture of their trunks into 

 lumber by the use of modern machinery and appliances, afford examples 

 of the most stupendous lumber operations ever witnessed, but, alas, the 

 end is near. At the present rate of destruction, not an unprotected 

 Sequoia of timber - producing size will be left standing twenty years 

 hence." f The best forests will soon be but dim memories only, and the 

 - generation next succeeding that which witnessed their discovery will 

 see their places occupied by human habitations surrounded with other 

 vegetation. The Redwood is, however, exceedingly tenacious of life : 

 when cut down a whole copse of vigorous shoots spring np from the 

 base of the monster trunk and soon hide it ; it is only by repeated 

 cuttings that the tendency of the tree to reproduce itself in this 

 manner can be repressed ; when these shoots are left to themselves, 

 they will grow in time into a circle of tall trees. 



The most salient points in the botanical history of the Redwood 

 are but few. It was discovered by Archibald Menzies in 1795, from 

 whose herbarium specimens it was figured and described by Lambert 

 in "The Genus Pinus" under the name of Taxodium sempervirens. 

 It was re-discovered by David Douglas in 1831 and shortly after- 

 wards by Dr. Coulter near its southern limit in the neighbourhood 

 of Monterey. In 1847 it was separated from Taxodium by Endlicher 

 who founded the genus Sequoia for its reception. About the same 



* Silva of North America, X. 142. 

 t Lemmon, Handbook of North-west American Cone-bearers, 189f>. 



