Abies. CONIFERS. 



indestructible. Universally known as the "Redwood." It was first discovered by Mcnzies on 

 Vancouver's voyage (about 1794), and not again noticed until collected by Domjhis in 1833. 



2. S. gigantea, Decaisne. Leaves paler and smaller, not distichous, slightly 

 spreading or closely appressed, ovate-acuminate or lanceolate, rigid and pungent, the 

 free portion 1 to 3 lines long ; on very young plants linear and much narrower, 

 more spreading : branchlets pendulous : staminate flowers 2 or 3 lines long : cones 

 ovate-oblong, 2 or 3 inches long, of usually 25 to 30 scales, which are 8 to 14 lines 

 long by 3 to 6 broad : seeds 3 to 7 to each scale, brownish, 2 to 3^ lines long. 

 Bull. Bot. Soc. France, i. 71, and Rev. Hortic. 1855, 9, t. 10, fig. 1 ; Torrey, tide 

 Gray, Amer. Journ. Sci. 2 ser. xviii. 286 ; Parlat. 1. c. 437 ; Muir, Proc. Ainer. 

 Assoc. xxv. 242. Wellingtonia yigantea, Lindl. in Gard. Chron. 1853,823; Hook. 

 Bot. Mag. t. 4777, 4778 ; Naudiri, Fl. Serres, ix. 93, t. 892, & 121, t. 903. Wash- 

 ingtonia CaUfornica (or Taxodium Washingtonianum), Winslow, Calif. Farmer, Sept. 

 1854 (Kew Journ. Bot. vii. 29). Sequoia Wellingtoniana, Seem, in Bonpl. iii. 27. 

 Taxodium giganteum, Kell. & Behr, Proc. Calif. Acad. i. 53. 



The " Big Tree," and pride of the California!! woods, occurring in groves or isolated groups, 

 always accompanied, however, by other trees, along a line some 240 miles in length, extending 

 from near the southern border of Tulare to a little north of the south line of Placer County. 

 Toward the north the groves become smaller, although the individual trees retain their full size. 

 This is the largest and tallest tree known to exist on the American continent. The height of the 

 highest one yet discovered, which is in the Calaveras Grove, is 325 feet. One of the finest and 

 largest trees of this grove was cut down, and its age ascertained to be about 1300 years ; it is pos- 

 sible that others considerably exceed this in age, as for instance the so-called Grizzly Giant of tin- 

 Man posa Grove, which is a little over 93 feet in circumference at the ground. The present 

 species is less graceful than the last, having shorter branches and paler appres-sed leaves. The 

 bark on the lower portion of the trunk becomes very thick (1 or 2 feet) ; the color of the wood is 

 a duller red. For a fuller account of this tree see Whitney's " Yosemite Guide- Book." 



TRIBE III. ABIETINE^E. (By DR. GEORGE ENGELMANN.) 



7. ABIES, Link. FIR. 



Flowers from the axils of last year's leaves : male flowers in the form of an oval 

 or cylindrical stamineal column, its short stipe surrounded by numerous bud-scales ; 

 commissure of the anthers terminating in a knob ; cells bursting transversely ; pol- 

 len-grains large (.05 to .07 line long), with 2 air-sacs. Female aments erect, the 

 bract much larger than the scale. Cones maturing in the first year, erect, their 

 scales and enclosed or exsert membranaceous bracts falling at maturity from the per- 

 sistent axis. Seeds covered with resin-vesicles and partially but permanently en- 

 closed in the pergamentaceous base of the wing, which covers the outer and laps over 

 upon the inner surface. Cotyledons normally 4 to 10. Magnificent trees, of pyram- 

 idal form and rapid growth, but with brittle and easily decaying wood ; leaves 

 sessile, with a circular never prominent base, mostly more or less flattened and often 

 emarginate, on the horizontal branchlets appearing 2-ranked by a twist near the 

 base, bearing stomata only or mainly on the lower surface, with two longitudinal 

 resin-ducts mostly close to the epidermis of the lower side or, in some species, 

 within the parenchyma. Engelm. in Trans. St. Louis Acad. iii. 593. Abies, 

 Tournefort, in part. Pinus, Linn., in part. Pinus, sect. Abies, Endlicher ; Parla- 

 tore. Picea, Don. 



The 16 or 18 species of this genus are confined to the mountainous regions of the northern 

 hemisphere, one half to the Old, the other half to the New World. Of these two are found 

 northward and eastward, one in Mexico, and the rest in the mountains of the Pacific slope. 



