SEQUOIA WELLINGTONIA. 



275 



is characterised by extreme formality of habit which is that of a spire 

 or elongated cone, its outline scarcely broken by a projecting branch. 

 Trunk strictly erect, covered with fibrous cinnamon-brown bark which 

 breaks off in irregular thickish plates. Primary branches slender, close- 

 set and gradually contracted in length upwards, the lowermost decumbent, 



those above spreading horizontally or slightly 

 ascending. Branchlets stoutish and much 

 ramified, the ramifications crowded and often 

 forming dense tufts. Leaves persistent three 

 four years, on the stouter growths ovate, 

 acuminate, passing upwards into lanceolate, 

 acuminate, 0'25 0*5 inch long, about three 

 completing the circuit of their axis, appressed 

 and decurrent at the "base, free beyond the 

 middle ; on the lateral shoots shorter and 

 smaller, at first bluish green, changing with 

 age to dull grass-green. Staminate flowers 

 about 0'25 inch long ; stamens spirally arranged, 

 with a short filament and ovate, acute connec- 

 tive bearing three anther cells. Ovuliferous 

 flowers somewhat larger, consisting of pale 

 yellow scales narrowed into a long slender 

 point, each bearing five nine ovules in 

 two series. Strobiles ovoid-cylindric, obtuse, 

 2 2 '5 inches long and 1*6 2 inches in 

 diameter, composed of 25 30 ligneous scales 

 arranged around a spindle-shaped axis, the 

 exposed dilated end approaching rhomboidal 

 shape with a central depression and transverse 

 ridge on each side of it, each scale bearing 

 five nine seeds, but usually fewer from non-fertilisation of ovules. 



Sequoia Wellingtonia, Seeman, Bonplandia, III. 27 (Feb. 1855). Lawson, Pinet. 

 Brit. III. 299, tt. 37, 51, 53. Sargent, Silva N. Amer. X. 145, t. 536. 



S. gigaiitea, Decaisne in Bull. Soc. Bot. de France, I 72 (1854), not Endlicher. 

 Torrey, Report U. S. Pacific Rail. IV. 140 (1857). Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. 

 XVI. 437. Hoopes, Evergreens, 239, with tig. The Garden, I. 54, 75, with figs. 

 Brewer and Watson, Bot. Califor. II. 117. Garden and Forest, V. 541, 546, 

 with figs. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 160, with figs. Masters in Journ. R. Hort. 

 Soc. XIV. 71. 



Wellingtonia gigantea, Lindley in Gard. Chron. 1853, p. 823. Hooker. W. 

 Bot. Mag. tt. 4777, 4778. Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 217. Gordon, Pinet. 

 .-d. II. 414. 



Eng. Wellingtonia, Mammoth Tree. Amer. Big Tree. Fr. Sequoia gigantesque. 

 Germ. Riesen Sequoia. Ital. Gigante della California. 



var. pendula. 



Primary branches quite pendulous, sometimes hanging down so close to 

 the trunk that the space occupied by the tree with its appendages 

 scarcely exceeds two yards in diameter. This is the most marked 

 deviation from the common form yet observed. 



( Hher varieties are distinguished by horticulturists by names sufficiently 

 indicative of their character as ar<j< j ntea, yl.auea pyramidalis, pij</'m'(i, 

 variegata, etc. 



The Wellingtonia inhabits the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada of 

 California on which it has a vertical range of from 5,000 to 8,000 feet 



Fig. 84. Cone of Sequoia Wellingtonia 

 from the Calaveras Grove. 



