LUTHER BURBANK 



A tree that has weathered successive ice ages 

 should not mind the winters of the present era, 

 even at the northern boundaries of the United 

 States, one might suppose. But such an inference 

 misses the chief point of the Sequoia's ancestral 

 story. In point of fact, the giant trees are alive to- 

 day in something like their pristine form because 

 they migrated before the ice sheets and finally 

 found a place of refuge west of the Sierras where 

 they were sheltered from the northern blasts and 

 given protection by the tempered breezes of the 

 Pacific. As compared with the other conifers 

 pines, spruces, hemlocks, cedars, and the rest the 

 Sequoias are really tender trees. They are hardy 

 indeed in contrast with their ancestors of still re- 

 moter geological times. But they have never devel- 

 oped that extreme hardiness that characterizes 

 their modified and stunted cousins. 



Nevertheless it has been found possible to raise 

 the Sequoia gigantia as far north as Central New 

 York. But the tree does not really thrive in regions 

 so inhospitable, and the redwood is even more 

 tender. In central and south-central regions of 

 the United States, however, the giant trees can be 

 grown to better advantage, and here they should 

 find a place as ornamental trees that has not hith- 

 erto been accorded them. 



In the region of Washington, D. C., the Sequoia 



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