Abies. CONIFERS. -1^^.^ 



indpstnictihle. Universally known as tlio " Redwood." It was fust discovered hy Mrmics on 

 Vancouver's voyage (about 1794), and not again noticed until collected l»y Domjlas in 1833. 



2. S. gigantea, Decaisne. Leaves paler and smaller, not distichous, slightly 

 spreading or closely appressed, ovate-acuniiuute or lanceolate, rigid and pungent', the 

 free portion 1 to 3 lines long ; on very young plants linear and much narrower, 

 more spreading : brancldets pendulous : staminate flowers 2 or 3 lines loii" : cones 

 ovate-oblong, 2 or 3 inches long, of usually 25 to 30 scales, which are 8 to°I4 line.s 



long ])y 3 to G broad : seeds 3 to 7 to each scale, brownish, 2 to 3^ lines long. 



Jiull. Jjot, Soc. Franco, i. 71, and Jiev. Hortic. 1855, 9, t. 10, iig. 1; Torrey,°lid«; 

 Gray, Anier. Journ. Sci. 2 ser. xviii. 280 ; I'arlat. 1. c. 437 ; Muir, Proc. Amer. 

 Assoc, x.w. 212. WelluKjtnnin i/i<j(tntea, Lindl. in Card. Chron. 1853,823; Hook. 

 13t)t. Mag. t. 4777, 4778; Naudin, Fl. 8erres, ix. 93, t. 892, & 121,. t. 903. Wasli- 

 ingtonia Californica (or Taxodium Washinytonidnurn), Wijislow, Calif. Farmer, Se})t. 

 1854 (Kew Journ. Eot. vii. 29). Sequoia WeUingtoniana, Seem, in lionpl. iii, 27. 

 'Taxodium r/iganteum, Kell. & Behr, Froc. Calif. Acad. i. 53. 



The " Big Tree," and pride of the Californian woods, occuriing in groves or isolated groups, 

 always accompanied, however, by other trees, along a line some 240 miles in length, extending 

 froTu near tiie southern border of Tulare to a little north of the south line of Placer County. 

 Toward the north the groves become smaller, although the individual trees retain their full size. 

 This is the largest and tallest tree known to exist on the American continent. The height of the 

 highest one yet discovered, which is in the Calaveras Grove, is 325 feet. One of the tinest and 

 laigest trees of this giovo was cut down, and its age ascertained to be abo\it 1300 years ; it is ]>os- 

 sible that others considerably exceed tliis in age, as for instance the so-called Grizzly Giant of the 

 Mariposa Grove, which is a little over 93 feet in circujnference at the ground. The present 

 species is less graceful than the last, having shorter branches and paler appressed leaves. Tho 

 Lark on the lower portion of the tnnik becomes very thick (1 or 2 feet) ; the color of the wood is 

 a duller red. For a fuller account of this tree see Whitney's " Yosemite Guide-Book." 



Tribe III. ABIETINEzE. (By Dr. George Engelmann.) 



7. ABIES, Link. Fir. 



Flowers from the axils of last year's leaves : male flowers in the form of an oval 

 or cylindrical stamineal column, its short stipo surrounded by numerous bud-scales ; 

 commissure of the anthers terminating in a knob ; cells bursting transversely ; pol- 

 len-grains large (.05 to .07 line long), with 2 air-sacs. Female anients erect, the 

 bract much larger than the scale. Cones maturing in tho first year, erect, their 

 scales and enclosed or exsert membranaceous bracts falling at maturity from the per- 

 sistent axis. Seeds covered with resin-vesicles and partially but permanently en- 

 closed in the pergamentaceous base of the wing, which covers the outer and laps over 

 upon the inner surfiice. Cotyledons normally 4 to 10. — Magnificent trees, of pjT^m- 

 idal form and rapid growth, but witli brittle and easily decaying wood ; leaves 

 sessile, with a circular never prominent base, mostly more or less flattened and often 

 emarginate, on the horizontal brancldets appearing 2-ranked by a twist near the 

 base, bearing stomata only or mainly on the lower surface, with two longitudinal 

 resin-ducts mostly close to the epidermis of the lower side or, in some species, 

 within the parenchyma. — Engelm. in Trans. St. Louis Acad. iii. 593. Abies, 

 Tournefort, in part. Firms, Linn., in i)art. Pinus, sect. Abies, Endlicher; Parla- 

 tore. Picea, Don. 



The 10 or 18 species of this geinia are confined to the moMulMinous regions of the northern 

 hemisphere, one half to the 01-1, the other half to the New World. Of these two are found 

 northward and eastward, one in Mexico, and the rest in the mountains of the I'acitic sloi)e. 



