Con ifertz Sequoia. 437 



that it is a modification of See-qua-yah, the name of a cele- 

 brated Cherokee chief. 



1. S. gigdntea, syn. Wellingtonia pi-gantea, Washingtonia 

 gigdntea, etc. Mammoth Tree. A colossal tree with dense 

 slender branches thickly clothed with small leaves at first 

 needle-shaped and spreading, at length scale-like and closely 

 imbricated and appressed, of a bright light green. Cone about 

 2 inches long, oblong ; scales woody, persistent, wedge-shaped. 

 This marvellous tree exceeds all others in its gigantic propor- 

 tions, not excepting the enormous Gr urn-trees of Australia and 

 Tasmania. One that was felled and stripped of its bark 

 measured 327 feet in height, and 90 feet in circumference at 

 the base ; and another was discovered broken off at a height of 

 300 feet, where it was 18 feet in diameter, hence it is con- 

 tended it must have been about 450 feet high altogether. It 

 measured 112 feet in girth at the base. It is a native of 

 .various parts of the Sierra Nevada in Upper California, where 

 it was first discovered, it is reported, by an American hunting 

 party in 1850. But the English collector, Lobb, appears to 

 have been the first to introduce it into our gardens during the 

 year 1853. It is also stated that Douglas saw it as early as 

 1831. However that may be, we may now count it by hundreds 

 of thousands in this country, and some specimens have already 

 attained a height of nearly 40 feet. Although this noble tree 

 is generally known in this country by the name of Wellingtonia 

 gigdntea, we must remind our readers that from a scientific 

 point of view this name is untenable, and must give way to 

 that adopted by us, and now admitted by most botanical writers. 

 Doubtless the tree will retain Wellingtonia as its popular name, 

 in the same way as we call Pelargoniums Greraniums in common 

 parlance. 



2. S. sempervlrens, syn. Taxodiiim sempervlrens. Red- 

 wood. This also is a very lofty tree, towering to the amazing 

 height of 200 to 300 feet. It was first discovered by Menzies 

 in 1796, and until the species just described became known, it 

 was justly considered as the ' Giant of the Forest.' Branches 

 numerous, slender. Leaves distichous, linear, flat, acute, soft 

 flexible, from 6 to 9 lines long, dark glossy green above, and 

 silvery beneath. Cones about an inch long, nearly spherical, 

 with thick woody scales terminating in a hard point. This 

 species is scarcely so hardy as the Wellingtonia, but it will 



