THE REDWOOD 



TWO sister species of giant trees occupy a position unique among living plants: 

 they are the oldest of living things ; one is the tallest of living things ; the other 

 is the largest of living things ; both are among the few surviving relics of a former 

 geologic period ; and each is now found only in comparatively limited areas on the Pacific 

 slope. These two trees are, of course, the Redwood and the Big Tree; both belong to the 

 genus Sequoia and are sometimes called by that name. The Redwood is 5. sempervirens 

 and the Big Tree is 5. Wellingtonia. The former is found in a narrow strip of land near 

 the coast in Oregon and Northern California, and does not grow at an altitude greater 

 than three thousand feet ; the latter is found in California on the slopes of the Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains, at altitudes ranging from five thousand to eight thousand feet. 



The specific characteristics of the Redwood are shown on the plate : an important 

 distinction between this tree and the Big Tree is that the Redwood has two forms of leaves, 

 with scaly buds and cones that mature in a single season ; in the Big Tree there is but one 

 kind of leaf, the buds are naked, and the cones require two seasons to mature. Well- 

 developed Redwood trees in favorable situations reach a diameter of twenty feet and a 

 height of three hundred and fifty feet, the tallest of known trees. The largest Big Trees 

 have a diameter of thirty-four feet and a height nearly equal to that of the tallest Redwoods. 



An interesting fact concerning the Redwood is its relation to the sea-fogs blown 

 landward from the Pacific Ocean. "While moisture of the soil affects the development 

 of the Redwood," writes Mr. Richard T. Fisher, "moisture of the atmosphere regulates 

 its distribution. The limits of the sea-fogs are just about the limits of the tree. The fogs, 

 unless scattered by the winds, flow inward among the mountains. Western exposures 

 receive most of the mist they carry, except those higher ridges above their reach, which 

 support in consequence only a scattering growth of Redwood. Eastern and southern 

 slopes, where the sun is hot and the mists strike only occasionally, show few Redwoods, 

 and these are short and limby." 



Of the Big Trees another writer in the Bureau of Forestry says: "The Big Trees 

 are unique in the world the grandest, the largest, the oldest, the most majestically 

 graceful of trees and if it were not enough to be all this, they are among the scarcest of 

 known tree species and have the extreme scientific value of being the best living repre- 

 sentatives of a former geologic age. It is a tree which has come down to us through the 

 vicissitudes of many centuries solely because of its superb qualifications." 



No other trees in the world have excited so much comment nor attracted so many 

 visitors. And all who see them agree that it is impossible to exaggerate their grandeur 

 or to get an adequate conception of their majestic proportions without actually seeing 

 them. It is fortunate indeed that these trees are now under the protection of the govern- 

 ment and are to be preserved for future generations. 



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