502 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



height of 1 50 feet and a stem-diameter of 5 feet after 60 years [Pro- 

 fessor Thos. Meehan]. Dr. Gibbons records as the stoutest stems 

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

 this Sequoia is much like that of a Fir or Abies, while the foliage 

 of the following species is more resembling that of a Spruce or 

 Picea. 



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

 Sequoia gigantea, Decaisne, not Endlicher.) 



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

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

 cumference of 112 feet, the age of 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. Tradi- 

 tional accounts seem to have over-rated the height of the Mammoth- 

 tree. In the Calaveras-grove, two of the largest trees, which may 

 have been the tallest of all, were destroyed ; the two highest now 

 existing there are respectively 325 and 319 feet high, with a cir- 

 cumference of 45 feet and 40 feet at 6 feec from the ground. At 

 the Mariposa-grove, the highest really measured trees are 272, 270, 

 and 260 feet high ; but one of these has the enormous circum- 

 ference of 67 feet at 6 feet from the ground, while another, the 

 height of which is not recorded, is 93 feet in girth at the ground, 

 and 64 feet at 1 1 feet from it ; the branches of this individual tree 

 are as thick as the stems of large elms. The elevation of Calaveras 

 is about 4,760 feet above sea-level. A stump 33 feet in diameter is 

 known at Yosemite. At Tuolumne a stump is tunnelled for the 

 passing through of stage-coaches, the opening being only about 

 one-quarter of the breadth of the stem. According to Dr. Gibbons, 

 this giant of the forest has a far wider range than was formerly 

 supposed, Mr. John Muir having shown, that it stretches over nearly 

 200 miles at an altitude of 5,000 to 8,000 feet. From the Calaveras 

 to the King-River it occurs in small and isolated groves, but from 

 the latter point south to Deer-Creek, a distance of about 70 miles, 

 there are almost unbroken forests of this noble tree. Growth of the 

 tree about 2 feet a year under ordinary culture, much more in damp 

 forest-glens. Prof. Schuebeler found it to endure the climate of 

 Norway northward to lat. 61 15'. The wood is soft and white 

 when felled ; afterwards it turns red ; it is very durable. Both 

 Sequoias produce shoots from the root after the stem is cut away. 

 Well-shaped plants are produced also from cuttings. The genus 

 Sequoia can be reduced to Athrotaxis, as shown by Bentham and 

 J. Hooker. 



Serenoa serrulata, J. Hooker. (Sabal serrulata, Roemer and Schultes.) 



The Saw-Palmetto. South-Carolina, Georgia and Florida ; par- 

 ticularly well adapted for sea-coasts. The stem grows to eight feet 

 in height, but according to Mr. A. J. Cook may slimly creep along 



