56 Prof. Asa Gray on Sequoia and its History. 



adaptability of parts^ and life and even soul informing the 

 whole. Under the former view Nature would be " the faultless 

 monster which the world ne'er saw," but inscrutable as the 

 Sphinx, whom it were vain, or worse, to question of the whence 

 and whither. Under the other, the perfection of nature, if 

 relative, is multifarious and ever renewed, and much that is 

 enigmatical now may find explanation in some record of the 

 past. 



That the two species of redwood we are contemplating ori- 

 ginated as they are and where they are, and for the part they 

 are now playing, is, to say the least, not a scientific supposition, 

 nor in any sense a probable one. Nor is it more likely that 

 they are destined to play a conspicuous part in the future, or 

 that they would have done so, even if the Indian's fires and 

 white man's axe had spared them. The redwood of the coast 

 {Sequoia sempei'virens) had the stronger hold upon existence, 

 forming as it did large forests throug-hout a narrow belt about 

 300 miles in length, and being so tenacious of life that every 

 large stump sprouts into a copse. But it does not pass the 

 Bay of Monterey, nor cross the line of Oregon, although so 

 grandly developed not far below it. The more remarkable 

 Sequoia gigantea of the Sierra exists in numbers so limited that 

 the separate groves may be reckoned upon the fingers, and the 

 trees of most of them have been counted, except near their 

 southern limit, where they are said to be more copious. A 

 species limited in individuals holds its existence by a precarious 

 tenure ; and this has a foothold only in a few sheltered spots, 

 of a happy mean in temperature and locally favoured with 

 moisture in summer. Even there, for some reason or other, 

 the pines with which they are associated {Piniis Lambertiana 

 and P. ponderosa) J the firs [Abies grandis and A. amabilis), 

 and even the incense-cedar [Libocedrus decurrens) possess a 

 great advantage, and, though they strive in vain to emulate 

 their size, Avholly overjoower the Sequoias in numbers. " To 

 him that hath shall be given ;" the force of numbers eventually 

 wins. At least, in the commonly visited groves Sequoia gi- 

 gantea is invested in its last stronghold, can neither advance 

 into more exposed positions above, nor fall back into drier and 

 barer ground below, nor hold its own in the long run where it is, 

 under present conditions ; and a little further drying of the 

 climate, which must once have been much moister than now, 

 would precipitate its doom. Whatever the individual longevity, 

 certain if not speedy is the decline of a race in which a high 

 death-rate afflicts the young. Seedlings of the big trees occur 

 not rarely, indeed, but in meagre proportion to those of asso- 

 ciated trees ; and small indeed is the chance that any of these 



