234 TEAK-BOOK OF FACTS. 



merous illustrations of these points were given, and allusions made 

 to the great value of the study of the variations and malformations 

 in plants, as affording the basis on which the now generally-accepted 

 theory of vegetable morphology rests. The lecturer concluded with 

 some remarks on the hypothesis of Mr. Darwin, and on the necessity 

 of employing the utmost caution in making use of arguments derived 

 from well-marked malformations, either for or against the doctrine. 



THE WELLINGTONS GIGANTEA. 



Me, Andrew Murray, in his Xotes on Californian Trees, Part 

 II., says the first place where this (Califoruian) tree was found was 

 at a spot called the Calaveras Grove (more recently the Mammoth- 

 Tree Grove), near the head waters of the Stanislaus and San Antonio 

 rivers, in long. 120° 10' W.. lat. 88" N., and about 4590 feet above 

 the sea level. There the number of trees still standing amounts to 

 92. Two other localities are now known, one ill Mariposa, and the 

 other in Fresno county. The Mariposa grove contains about 400 

 trees, and the Fresno grove about 600. The tree is also said to have 

 been met with in Carson Creek, a few miles to the north of Mammoth- 

 Tree Grove; and Carrieres stated that an officer of the French navy 

 brought cones identical with those obtained in California from a 

 latitude about ten degrees north of these localities, but the identity 

 of these cones with those of the Wellingtonia has been doubted. It 

 is said also to have been met with in various other parts of the Sierra 

 Nevada ; but if so, it does not there attain the gigantic dimensions 

 of those in the groves above mentioned. 



This tree is undoubtedly the largest and most magnificent hiown on 

 the face of the earth. Its ally, the Sequoia sempervirens, is not far 

 short of it in size, but still stands a little in the background. The 

 average dimensions of both trees when full grown are about 300 feet 

 in height and 9# feet in circumference. We have great difficulty in 

 realizing this immense height, and to assist us we must have recourse 

 to other objects of comparison. To an Edinburgh man we have a 

 very good one. The Gas Company's great chimney, although built 

 in a hollow deep below Nelson's Monument, yet has its bop 7 feet 

 higher. Now it is only 329 feet high in all, including its pedestal, 

 which is 66 feet in height; and one of these mammoth trees was 

 actually 450 feet high, or nearly a third higher than that tremendous 

 chimney. And Lord Richard G-rosvenor, in the Dumber of the 

 Qardenertt CkronieL for 7th January, I860, Bpeaksof one he had just 

 seen as 116 feet in circumference, and 460 feel high. It is taller 

 than St. Peter's, and little short of the height of the Pyramids. 

 That is, within 11 feel of the height of the 8] . I atlie- 



dral : 26 feet higher than St. Peter's, at Rome : 46 f< I higher than 



St. Paul's, London; and 10 feet higher than twice the elevation of 



the London Monument, 



An attempt was made by certain American tavm to appropriate 

 this tree for their great man by celling it Washingtoniana, Mr. 



.Murray writes : — " Dr. Lindleyis undeniably the first describer, and 



