THE PIXE SUB-FAMILY. 245 



Santa Cruz above Monterey. Doug-las says he repeatedly 

 measured specimens 270 feet long and 32 feet in circum- 

 ference, at 3 feet from the ground, and others that even 

 exceeded 300 feet in height. 



He thus alludes to the immense size of these trees: 

 " But the great beauty of the Californian vegetation is a 

 species of Taxodium which gives the mountains a most 

 peculiar, I was almost going to say awful, appearance; 

 something which plainly tells we are not in Europe." A 

 horizontal slab sawn from this species was received from 

 Dr. Fischer, which he mentions as containing 1,008 annual 

 rings and measuring 15 feet in diameter. A specimen has 

 been found that was 55 feet in circumference, 6 feet from 

 the ground ; its enormous magnitude having given rise to 

 the name of " The Giant of the Forest." 



We only introduce this species in this place for the pur- 

 pose of noticing one of our finest native trees; for unfortu- 

 nately it will not thrive in the Middle States. Our mild- 

 est winters in this latitude almost invariably kill it down 

 to the snow-line, and not unfrequently the whole plant 

 perishes. At Washington and Baltimore it succeeds very 

 indifferently, as it requires a still more genial temperature 

 than these localities afford. 



Where it flourishes, the Californian Red-wood forms a 

 magnificent tree, making annually the most astonishingly 

 vigorous growths, and is clothed with a peculiar deep green 

 foliage that is unusually handsome. The timber is of a 

 handsome red color, fine and close-grained, but light and 

 brittle, and never attacked by insects. 



7. LARIX, Tournefort. LARCH. 



" Catkins, lateral and scattered, bud-like, sterile flowers 

 nearly as in Pinus, but the pollen of simple spherical grains. 

 Cones, ovoid, erect; the bracts and scales, persistent; 



