SEQUOIA AND ITS HISTORY. 219 



Mantcliooi'ia), as they are from those of Atlantic Xorth 

 America. Their near relatives, when they have any 

 in other lands, are mostly southward, on the Mexican 

 plateau, or many as far south as Chili. The same may 

 be said of the plants of the intervening great Plains, 

 except that northward in the subsaline vegetation there 

 are some close alliances w^th the flora of the steppes 

 of Siberia. And along the crests of high mountain- 

 ranges the Arctic- Alpine flora has sent southward more 

 or less numerous representatives thi'ough the whole 

 length of the country. 



If we now compare, as to their flora generally, the 

 Atlantic United States with Japan, Mantchooria, and 

 JSTorthern China — i. e.. Eastern ]N'orth America with 

 Eastern ]S^orth Asia, haK the earth's circumference 

 apart — we find an astonishing similarity. The larger 

 part of the genera of our own region, which I have 

 enumerated as wanting in California, are present in 

 Japan or Mantchooria, along with many other peculiar 

 plants, divided between the two. There are plants 

 enough of the one region which have no representa- 

 tives in the other. There are types which appear to 

 have reached the Atlantic States from the south ; and 

 there is a larger infusion of subtropical Asiatic types 

 into temperate China and Japan ; among these there 

 is no relationship between the two countries to speak 

 of. There are also, as I have already said, no small 

 number of genera and some species which, being com- 

 mon all round or partly round the northern temperate 

 zone, have no special significance because of their 

 occurrence in these two antipodal floras, although they 

 have testimony to bear upon the general question of 



