IX EXTRA-TROPICAL COUNTRIES. 315 



Selinum anesorrhizum, F. v. Meller. (Anesorrhiza Capensis, Ch. 



and Schl.) 



South Africa. The root of this biennial herb is edible. A. 

 montana (Eckl. and Zeyh.), a closely allied plant, yields likewise 

 an edible root ; and so it is with a few other species of the section 

 Anesorrhiza. 



Selinum Monnieri, Linne. 



From East Asia, now extending to South Europe, preferring moist 

 places. An annual herb, praised by the Chinese as valuable for 

 medicinal purposes. 



Sequoia sempervirens, Endlicher.* (Taxodium sempervirens, 



Lambert.) 



Red Wood or Bastard-Cedar of North-West America, chiefly 

 California. A splendid tree, exceptionally 360 feet high, occa- 

 sionally with a diameter of the stem of 55 feet. The wood is 

 reddish, close-veined, easily split, very durable, but light and 

 brittle. The timber of mission buildings one hundred years old is 

 still quite sound. One of the most colossal trees of the globe. 

 Its growth is about 32 feet in sixteen years. Often found on 

 metamorphic sandstone. It luxuriates in the cool dampness of 

 sea-fogs. Shinn describes this sequoia as rugged shafts, rising like 

 huge monolithic columns, crowned with downward curving branches 

 and shining green. Dr. Gibbons writes that this tree forms 

 immense forests along the coast range for a distance of about 200 

 miles in a belt 20 miles wide. The soft, straight-grained, durable 

 wood is suitable for external as well as internal finish. It consti- 

 tutes almost the sole material for weather-boarding along the 

 Californian coast ; and for fence-posts, foundations of buildings, 

 and railway-sleepers it is almost the only material used. Is also 

 susceptible of a splendid polish for furniture ; is largely sawn into 

 boards and shingles, furnishing in California the cheapest lumber. 

 Stem bare to 100 feet or more ; when cut, sending suckers from 

 the root for renovation. Dr. Gibbons records as the stoutest stem 

 some of 33 feet diameter at 3 feet from the ground. 



Sequoia Wellingtonia, Seemann.* (Wellvngtonia gigantea, Lindley ; 

 Sequoia gigantea, Decaisne, not Endl.) 



Mammoth-tree. California, up to 8,000 feet above the sea. This, 

 the biggest of all trees, attains a stem of 320 feet in length and 

 112 in circumference, the oldest trees being estimated at 1,100 

 years. The total height of a tree has been recorded as occasionally 

 450 feet, but such heights have never been confirmed by actual 

 clinometric measurements of trees existing now. A stem broken 

 at 300 feet had yet a diameter of 18 feet. The wood is soft and 

 white when felled j afterwards it turns red. It is very durable. 



