96 LINKS WITH THE PAST [ch. vi 



many other instances is the precursor of extinction. 

 The famous groves of Mariposa and Calaveras 

 represent the last resting-place of giant survivors 

 of a race Avhich formerly held its own in Europe and 

 in other parts of the world. 



The Redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, occupies a 

 narrow belt of country, rarely more than 20 or 30 

 miles from the coast, three hundred miles long from 

 Monterey in the south to the frontiers of Oregon ; 

 it has a stronger hold on existence than Sequoia 

 gigantea. In Northern California it still forms pure 

 forests on the sides of ravines and on the banks of 

 streams. The tapering trunk, rising from a broad 

 base to over 300 ft., gives off short horizontal 

 branches thickly set with narrow spirally disposed 

 leaves i — J inch in length arranged in two ranks 

 like the similar leaves of the Yew. The lower 

 edge of each leaf is decurrent, that is it runs a 

 short distance doAvn the axis of the branch instead of 

 terminating at the point of attachment. It is by 

 paying attention to such details as this as well as to 

 more important features, that we are able to connect 

 fragmentary fossil twigs with those of existing 

 species. The female 'flowers' have the form of 

 oblong cones from | to 1 inch long : each consists 

 of a central axis bearing crowded wedge-shaped, 

 woody appendages or cone-scales, which gradually 

 increase in breadth towards the exposed distal end 



