The Big Tree and the Redwood 



The other three species are extinct, and America has the only sur- 

 vivors of the noblest race of plants the world has ever produced. 

 Trenches and ridges in the ground within the Sequoia belt contain 

 the prostrate bodies of former generations of Big Trees, They 

 are not found outside the range. This fact leads John Muir to 

 believe that the area covered by these trees has not shrunken any 

 since the Glacial Period — that Sequoia has held its own for 5,000 

 to 10,000 years. 



The devastation of the Big Tree groves by lumbermen is now 

 checked in a few locations by Government purchase and reserva- 

 tion. The lumber is put to such base uses as shingles and clap- 

 boards and fencing which lesser trees might better supply. It is 

 the vast size and height of these trees, not the market value of 

 the lumber per board foot, that make an acre yield such enormous 

 profit. 



Seedling Big Trees grow slowly, and do poorly in the Eastern 

 States. In Europe they are more successful, and are popular 

 everywhere. Weeping forms, which are much grown, originated 

 in a French nursery. 



The genus takes its name from Sequoiah, a wise Cherokee 

 Indian, who made an alphabet of his tribal language by means 

 of which the New Testament and a newspaper were published for 

 his people. 



Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens, Endl.) — Resinous, aromatic 

 trees, with tall, fluted trunks and short, horizontal branches; 

 200 to 300 feet high, 12 to 28 feet in diameter. Head small, irreg- 

 ular. Barh thick, red, 6 to 12 inches thick, in ridges 2 to 4 feet 

 wide, checked crosswise, showing brighter, close, inner layer. 

 Wood light, soft, brittle, close, red, easily split, durable, satiny 

 lustre. Buds oval, small, loosely scaly. Leaves of two forms: 

 lanceolate and spreading, or awl shaped and shorter; evergreen, 

 \to\ inch long. Flowers : monoecious, in late winter, cone shaped, 

 scaly; staminate on erect stems, scales 3-anthered, pollen copious; 

 pistillate with 7 ovules on each scale. Fruit oblong, woody cone, 

 I to I inch long, scales thick and grooved at tip; 3 to 5-winged 

 seeds on each. Preferred habitat, moist, sandy soil. Distribution, 

 southern Oregon on coast range slopes to Monterey County, 

 California. Uses: Most valuable timber tree of Pacific coast; 

 successful in European gardens. 



In many characters, the redwood is not different from the 



