Dr. B. Seemann on the Mammoth-tree of Upper California. 167 



1 foot to 10 yards) represented a Mammoth-tree 300 feet high, 

 and a ladder of a common length, with a man half-way upon it, 

 leaning against the trunk : by comparison the ladder assumed 

 the appearance of a walking-stick, the man that of a beetle. 

 More fully to illustrate these extraordinary dimensions, sketches 

 had been drawn of some of the tallest buildings in the world, — 

 the Pyramids of Egypt, St. Peter's at Rome, Salisbury Cathedral, 

 and St. Paul's in London, — showing that the Mammoth-tree 

 contested the palm with St. Peter's, and was but a small distance 

 below the Pyramids. In a comparison with other trees, the 

 Californian giant came off equally victorious : the highest Palm 

 dwindled down to the appearance of a sugar-cane, the Spruce to 

 that of a juniper, and even the far-famed Cedar of Lebanon to 

 that of a mere bush. A quotation of the absolute height of the 

 Sequoia IVellingtonia is equally calculated to impress us with 

 amazement. Most of the specimens now standing at the Mam- 

 moth Grove attain the average height of 300 feet ; but one of 

 them — known as the " Mother of the Forest," and stripped of 

 its bark to the height of 116 feet for the purpose of being pub- 

 licly exhibited — actually measures 327 feet in height and 90 feet 

 in circumference ; or, if we are disposed to credit the statement 

 put forward by the exhibitor of the bark in New York and 

 London, its full height is 363 feet, diameter at base 31 feet, and 

 diameter 100 feet from the base, 15 feet. Enormous as these 

 dimensions may be, they are as it were put in the shade by 

 remembering what those of another tree must have been when 

 in full vigour. This " Father of the Forest," as the specimen 

 has been appropriately termed, measuring 112 feet in circum- 

 ference at the base, can be traced 300 feet, where the trunk was 

 broken by falling against another tree : it here measures 1 8 

 feet in diameter; and, according to the average taper of the 

 other trees, this giant must have been about 450 feet, and was 

 no doubt one of the highest vegetable forms of the present 

 creation. 



Other Coniferse often attain an enormous size, as for instance 

 the Redwood (300 feet), or the Pinus Lambertiana, Dougl. 

 (150-200 feet and more) ; and some of the Gum-trees of Van 

 Diemen's Land are 215 feet high ; but they are all topped by a 

 fully developed Mammoth-tree. The mind involuntarily asks 

 how many years were requisite to pile up such mountains of 

 vegetable cells, and begins to speculate on the possible age of 

 such monsters. When the Mammoth-tree first came into notice, 

 it was assumed to be 3000 years old ; or, in the editorial language 

 of the ' Gardeners' Chronicle, " it must have been a little plant 

 when Samson was slaying the Philistines, or Paris running 

 away with Helen, or iEneas carrying off good Pater Anchises 



