Illustrations of Conifers. 63 



SEQUOIA GIGANTEA (Decaisne). WELLINGTONIA. 



Gardeners' Chronicle, pp. 820, 823 (1853). 



Vol. XIX. p. 656 (1896) with fig. 

 Veitch's Man. Conif. ed. 2, p. 274 (1900). 

 Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. III. p. 699 (1908). 



A TREE which attains a height of over 300 feet with a tapering trunk 

 which is occasionally 90 feet in girth above the enlarged and but- 

 tressed base. Young trees narrowly pyramidal. Old trees free of 

 branches to 100 or 150 feet with an irregular crown. Bark 1 to 2 

 feet thick, divided into broad lobes, separating into loose reddish 

 fibrous scales. Branchlets pendulous, dense, green at first, but be- 

 coming brown later. Buds minute without scales. 



Leaves persistent for four years, approximately three ranked ; on 

 the main axes, ovate, acuminate, up to inch long ; on the lateral 

 axes, lanceolate, acute, |- to ^ inch long ; appressed and decurrent 

 at the base, free and spreading in their upper half, rigid, ending 

 in sharp cartilaginous points ; lower surface green, rounded or keeled ; 

 upper surface with green midrib and two inconspicuous bands of 

 stomata. 



Cones ripening in the second year, ovoid-oblong, 2 to 3 inches 

 long by 1 to 2 inches wide, brownish ; scales gradually thickening 

 from the base to the dilated disc, which is to 1 inch broad and often 

 bears a reflexed spine in the centre of the transverse depression. 

 Seeds ^ to ^ inch long, winged. 



Sequoia giyantea is confined to the western slopes of the Sierra 

 Nevada of California where it occurs in an interrupted belt at an 

 elevation of 5,000 to 8,400 feet above sea-level. It was discovered by 

 John Bidwell in 1841 and introduced by J. D. Matthew who visited the 

 Calaveras Grove in 1853. It is now general in cultivation. The wood 

 is light, soft and very brittle, and is used for shingles, box-making, 

 etc, locally, but is not exported. 



The Bayfordbury specimen was planted in 1850 and now measures 

 94 feet in height with a girth of 12 feet. 



