ESSAY UPON REDWOOD. 83 



grayish green ; this two-ranked character of the flat, final, star- 

 ry spray of tiny twiglets, tipped with the first young growth 

 of spring, is of a bright and even vivid yellow-green verdure, 

 as tender and listless in its repose as an infant on its moth- 

 er's bosom ! Yea, for gayety of beauty and for grace, these 

 branches excel the choicest flowers and prettiest ferns ; 

 reminiscent of the charming Spring spruce groves eastward, 

 redolent of Eden odors ! But for grander display in this 

 Spring state, and in every other way, these thrifty young red- 

 woods exceed them all. Somewhat mixed with the common 

 foliage are always to be found some spaces of leaves reduced 

 to mere scales ; and occasionally a few trees in every grove 

 have altogether awl-pointed, tiny, scaly leaves, similar to the 

 great Celestial Cedars of the Sierra Nevada mountains. 



Although we have observed that these garland-like limbs 

 are chiefly spreading, nevertheless, like all conifers of weak 

 and slender branch, in great age, they too are apt to become 

 more or less tent-topped, especially as tipped and gracefully 

 drooping, with male flowers, like their mammoth kin; or pend- 

 ing, tiny, terminal cones of an oblong shape one to one and 

 one quarter inch long, and one half to three quarters of an 

 inch thick. These numerous trapezoidally disked scales are 

 thick and roughly implaited by the indrawn or quilted-like 

 center ; this shield-like disk is not only thus puckered in. 

 but marked distinctly by a sharp, laterally transverse ridge 

 stem of this scale stout, compressed, broadly wedge form, 

 with some sharp angles, persisting, covered and stained by a 

 dark purple, almost black, shining, fragile and granular secre- 

 tion, like Gum Catechu (tannic extract of an Acacia), of 



