io8 APPENDIX. 



case in point; Professor Sargent publishing it as Sequoia 

 Wellingtonia, while Mr. Sud worth names it Sequoia Wash- 

 ingtoniana. This famous tree the largest and noblest in 

 the world has been singularly unfortunate in regard to its 

 botanical name; and as its only tenable name has been but 

 recently published, it may be of interest to many readers to 

 give a brief history of this transaction. 



Sequoia Washingtoniana, Sudworth. 



vs. 

 Sequoia Wellingtonia, Seaman. 



It is necessary to begin with the older species of Sequoia 

 the Coast Redwood. Discovered at an unknown early date 

 it was first published (1803) by Lambert, of London, under 

 the name of Taxodium SempervirenSj'he thinking the trees 

 formed another species allied to the well-known Taxodium 

 or Bald Cypress of the East. In 1847, Endlicher, a German 

 botanist, conceiving that it was a distinct genius, published 

 it under the name of Sequoia sempervirens. This author, 

 contrary to custom, omitted to give the origin of his generic 

 name, and so botanists have been forced to conjecture its 

 origin, some one suggesting that it was, perhaps, derived from 

 the name of "Sequoyah," the half-breed Cherokee Indian 

 who has the distinction of inventing a syllabic alphabet 

 for his people. Others think it was derived from sequor (to 

 follow), alluding to the remarkable fact that our two Red- 

 woods are the followers or rear-guard of a vanishing, 

 prodigious race of twenty-seven species a much more 

 reasonable and pleasing origin for the botanical name of our 

 two Big Trees. 



For the second (specific) name, Endlicher wrote gigantea 

 in accordance with the practise of the age which allowed 



