142. SEQUOIA GIGANTEA BIG TREE, GIANT REDWOOD. 45 



Endliclier when he described and named the genus in 1847, has been a matter of 

 considerable controversy. The most commonly approved explanation of the origin 

 is that it is the name of a Cherokee Indian half-breed, Sequoyah, who invented a 

 syllabic alphabet for his tribe. 



142. SEQUOIA GIGANTEA, DECSN. 

 BIG-TREE, GIANT KEDWOOD, REDWOOD OF THE MOUNTAINS. 

 Ger., Riesenbaum; Fr., Arbre gigantesque; Sp., Arbol giganteo. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves small, scale like, 1-3 lines in length, pale green, 

 ovate-acuminate or lanceolate, rigid and pungent, spirally arranged, closely ap- 

 pressed or with points slightly spreading; leaves on very young plants linear, nar- 

 rower and more spreading; branchlets pendulous. Staminate aments only 2-3 lines 

 long. Fruit, ovoid-oblong cones, 2-3 in. long and usually of 25-30 scales' which are 

 at apex lx| in. in size, depressed, and with a very delicate prickle in the center, 

 through which runs the longest way of the scale, an elevated ridge; seeds 3-7 with 

 each scale, about - in. long, with chocolate-brown center (the seed portion), and golden 

 brown lateral thickish wing-like margins. 



(The specific name, gigantea, is in Latin descriptive of the gigantic stature of 

 the tree.) 



"These marvelous trees, the pride not only of California but of all 

 America, have in all the world few if any peers in size and majesty. 

 They attain the height of upwards of 350 ft. (150 m.), with a trunk 30 or 

 35 ft. (10 m.) in diameter, vested in a very thick, reddish-brown, soft, 

 fibrous bark, with great rounded ridges 2 or 3 ft. (0.90m.) or more some- 

 times in thickness. The branches of the Sequoia gigantea usually leave 

 the trunk at so great a height that the tallest tree of the Atlantic forests 

 could stand beneath them. They are short for the magnitude of the 

 trunk, mostly horizontal or somewhat deflected and dividing into a pro- 

 fusion of drooping branchlets, all forming an open cylindrical narrow head. 



HABITAT. California, the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Moun- 

 tains from Placer County to the southern border of Tulare County, and from 

 about 4,000 to 8,000 ft. elevation. It does not form extensive tracts of 

 forest, but is interspersed with other trees, as the Sugar Pine, Douglas 

 Spruce, 'White Fir, Post Cedar, etc., and these trees, as if it were a 

 fashion set by the Giant Sequoia, also attain enormous dimensions, even 

 10-14 in. in diameter and of great height. To the northward of its 

 range it is found in isolated groups covering small area, but with large 

 trees, in moist swales and depressions among the mountains, while to the 

 southward it is more generally distributed over the mountain slopes, 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood very light, soft, weak, brittle, compact 

 and very durable in contact with the soil; of a rich, red color, more 

 intense in some places than in others, and with whitish sap-wood occu- 

 pying one or two hundred rings. Specific Gravity, 0.2882 ; Percentage 

 of Ash, 0.50; Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 0.2868; Coefficient 

 of Elasticity, 45146 ; Modulus of Rupture, 459; Resistance to Longitudi- 



