504 LXXVI. CONIFERS. [Sequoia. 



sionally injured by severe frost, and extensively cultivated in England, 

 where it was introduced in 1796, the highest specimen being at Dropmore, 

 50 ft. high in 1871. This, like the other species of this genus, continues 

 its growth throughout the year; the buds are open, not enclosed in scales; 

 and young leaves are being formed at all times of the year. The wood of 

 some Araucarias is supposed to have no proper annual rings ; the con- 

 centric bands are often incomplete, and are believed not to indicate any 

 periodical interruption of the vegetation, like that which causes the 

 formation of annual rings of other coniferous and leaf-bearing trees. 



The tribe of Taxodiece includes, besides many other interesting trees of 

 North America, Japan, China, Australia, and South Africa, the two giants 

 of California, Sequoia sempervirens, Endl., and S. gigantea, Torrey ( Welling- 

 tonia gigantea, Lindley). The former, the Redwood of the coast, is found 

 in a narrow belt between 34 and 42 N.L. in the mountains of California ; 

 it has been known to attain 300 ft., with a girth of 55 ft. Its cones are 

 1 in. long, the timber is excellent, and it coppices vigorously. 



Sequoia gigantea, the Wellingtonia or Mammoth-tree, is well known as 

 the reputed tallest tree on record, attaining 300 to 330 ft., and a circum- 

 ference of 80-100 ft. One individual is stated to have been 450 ft. high. 

 As regards height, Eucalyptus Globulus and obliqua of Tasmania, and 

 other Australian Eucalypti (p. 231), rival the Californian tree. Abies 

 Douglasii (p. 527) and Sequoia sempervirens probably stand in the sec- 

 ond rank ; and Antiaris innoxia (p. 427), with the Deodar (p. 518), under 

 exceptionally favourable circumstances, take the third. Of European 

 trees the Silver Fir (p. 529) comes next, but it rarely attains, even in the 

 most luxuriant and compact forests of the Southern Schwarzwald, 200 ft. 

 Eng., one-half the height of the Wellingtonia; and it remains consider- 

 ably behind the great variety of trees which compose the dense evergreen 

 forests of Tenasserim and of the crest of the Western Ghats (where not 

 cleared for coffee plantations), which often form a dense mass of vegeta- 

 tion, unbroken for miles, on an average 200 ft. high. 



The Mammoth-tree has a much more limited range of distribution than 

 any of the other forest giants just mentioned. Like the Deodar, Firms 

 excelsa, and the Larch of the Alps and Carpathians, it is an inhabitant of 

 the mountains, but, so far as known at present, it is only found in a belt 

 25 miles long in N.L. 38, in the valleys on the west side of the Sierra 

 Nevada of California at an elevation of 4000 to 7000 ft. 



The wood of the Mammoth-tree has distinct concentric rings, the inner 

 belt of each being composed of soft spongy wood, while there is a narrow 

 but hard and horny outer belt of darker colour. It has been asserted that 

 two or more of such rings are formed in one year. The cones of S. gigan- 

 tea are 2-2 J in. long ; they consist of imbricate scales, like the cones of 

 Abietineai, but each scale has 5 seeds at its base. Both Sequoias are 

 hardy in England. 



Fruit a cone with imbricate scales. 



Leaves persistent, in clusters of 2-5, in the axils of mem "bran- | 

 ous scales ; cones ripen the 2d, sometimes the 3d year, 

 scales thickened at the apex 1. Pinus. 



