Prof. Asa Gray on Sequoia and its History. 59 



southern quarters ; for in cultivation it evinces a northern 

 hardiness. Now another species of Torreya is a characteristic 

 tree of Japan ; and the same, or one very like it indeed, inhabits 

 the Himalayas — belongs therefore to the Eastern Asiatic 

 temperate region, of which China is a part, and Japan, as we 

 shall see, the portion most interesting to us. There is only 

 one more species of Torreya ; and that is a companion of the 

 redwoods in California ; it is the tree locally known under the 

 name of the California nutmeg. In this case the three are near 

 brethren, species of the same geniis, known nowhere else than 

 in these three habitats. 



Moreover the Torreya of Florida has growing with it a 

 yew tree, and the trees of that grove are the only yew trees of 

 Eastern America ; for the yew of our northern woods is a de- 

 cumbent shrub. The only other yew trees in America grow 

 with the redwoods and the other Torreya in California, and 

 more plentifully further nprth, in Oregon. A yew tree equally 

 accompanies the Torreya of Japan and the Himalayas ; and 

 > this is apparently the same as the common yew of Europe. 



So we have three groups of trees of the great coniferous order 

 which agree in this peculiar geographical distribution: — the red- 

 woods and their relatives, which differ widely enough to be 

 termed a different genus in each region ; the Torreyas, more 

 nearly akin, merely a different species in each region ; the yews, 

 perhaps all of the same species, perhaps not quite that (for 

 opinions differ and can hardly be brought to any decisive test). 

 The yews of the Old World, from Japan to Western Europe, 

 are considered the same ; the very local one in Florida is 

 slightly different ; that of California and Oregon differs a very 

 little more ; but all of them are within the limits of variation 

 of many a species. However that may be, it appears to me 

 that these several instances all raise the same question, only 

 with a different degree of emphasis, and, if to be explained at 

 all, will have the same kind of explanation. But the value of 

 the explanation will be in proportion to the number of fticts it 

 will explain. 



Continuing the comparison between the three regions with 

 which we are concerned, we note that each has its own species 

 of pines, firs, larches, &c., and of a few deciduous-leaved trees, 

 such as oaks and maples ; all of which have no peculiar sig- 

 nificance for the present purpose, because they are of genera 

 which are common all round the northern hemisphere. Leaving 

 these out of view, the noticeable point is tliat the vegetation of 

 California is most strikingly unlike that of the Atlantic United 

 States. They possess some })lants, and some peculiarly Ame- 

 rican plants, in common — enough to show, as 1 imagine, that 



