so RESOURCES OF CALIEOKNIA. 



some of its cones, leaves, and wood, to botanists in New York, 

 bnt they were unfortunately lost on the way. A few months 

 later, an English collector sent some specimens to Professor 

 Lindley, Avho not only found the tree to be of a new species, 

 but determined to make a new genus of it, and he aihxed to it 

 the name Wellingtonia gigantea. When the news of the se- 

 lection of this name arrived in California, a foolish and preten- 

 tious fellow, who meddled with matters of science of which he 

 knew nothing, wrote a ranting article against Lindley, for try- 

 inc to confer the honor of the great tree of America upon a 

 BHton like Wellington, and declaring that the only proper 

 title for the tree would be Washingtonia gigantea. If there 

 had been any bad taste in conferring the name of a Tory and 

 a man of blood upon such a magnificent tree, still the rules ol 

 botanical nomenclature are well estabUshed, and the matter of 

 the name is left entirely to the discretion of the man who first 

 <rives a technical description of the plant and determmes its 

 o-enus. American botanists, therefore, never recognized the 

 name Washi?igto7iia, because Lindley's name was of undoubt- 

 ed priority ; and to acknowledge the priority, and yet recognize 

 the WasMngt07iia, would be equivalent to proving their own 

 stupidity. And yet English botanists have, in scientific rec- 

 ords, accused American botanists and "Americans" of makmg 

 an ao-itation to establish the name as Washingto7iia. These 

 facts^'are part of the history of botany, and facts of interest 



relating to the big trees. 



The general opinion among botanists is, that Lindley was 

 wrong in declaring the mammoth tree to be of a new genus: 

 it is a Sequoia, related in the closest manner to the redwood. 

 When the redwood and the mammoth tree come to be held 

 as of a distinct genera, then nearly every difference heretofore 

 considered merely specific may be made the basis for estabhsh- 

 ino- new genera. Dr. Seeman called the mammoth tree the 

 Sequoia gigantea, and it bears that name with botanists gen- 



erallv. 



The Sequoias are found only in California; the Sequoia 



