are the conspicuous living representatives, our 

 Sierra Giant bears much larger cones than 

 any found in fossil remains. Without doubt 

 it is the largest vegetable creation that ever 

 towered above the surface of the earth. 



The tall, spire-shaped Coast Redwood need 

 never be confounded with the Cedar and 

 Cypress of the region, for they have only 

 little pointed scales for leaves, while the Red- 

 wood has distinct, linear leaves, one-half to 

 an inch long, and arranged in two ranks along 

 the branchlet. The broad-crowned Sierra 

 Giant, or Washington Tree, having small, 

 scale-like leaves, is sometimes mistaken for 

 the Incense Cedar of the region, but the com- 

 paratively large, oval cone, one and one-half 

 to two and one-half inches long, distinguishes 

 the Big Tree unmistakably. 



FASCICULARES 



THE PINE FAMILY /VATS 



Next to the Redwoods in interest is the 

 numerous family of pines comprising the 

 most part of our forests. The genus called 

 botanically Pirnis comprises about eighty spe- 

 cies all told, distributed over the North 

 Temperate Zone on both hemispheres, but, to 

 the surprise of most persons, quite unequally. 



Of the 80 species, only 20 are found in 

 Eurasia, a vast region over 9,000 miles across, 

 while three times as many species, 60, are in 

 North America, only one-third as wide (3,000 

 miles). Of these 60 American species, 25 are 

 on the Pacific Slope north of Mexico, and 20 

 of these are in California; that is, the little, 

 narrow state of California has within its 

 borders as many species of pine as there are 

 in all the broad expanse of the Old World. 



And the same conditions prevail practically, 

 in regard to most of the other forest trees ; 



