1857.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 119 



tended from Sikkim, by way of the Neilghemes, Ceylon, and Java, to 

 China. A plant, which tlae author believed to be Spiranthes autumnalis, 

 is found in North-western India ; and 8. aii&tralh everywhere, from Si- 

 beria, North-west India generally, Ceylon, and Java, to China, New Hol- 

 land, and New Zealand. It was added, that any one who has examined 

 a large number of species Avould be correctly led to regard the latter vari- 

 able plant as nothing more than our own S. (Estivalis. Epipactis vera- 

 trifolia, a remarkable Persian species, the same without doubt as the com- 

 mon Indian species described under the names of E. consmilis, macro- 

 stachya, herbacea, and DalJwusia, were only so many states of the common 

 European E. latifolia. CephalantJiera acumhtata, abundant aU over North- 

 ern India, is identical with C. ensifolia of England. Epipogium Gmelini, 

 recently discovered in England, had been found in Sirmur. 



"Facts of this nature," observes the author, "are of the more im- 

 portance, seeing that the ordinary modes of dispersion — by birds, by 

 winds, by waves, by man — would seem to be here inoperative, or at least 

 insufficient to explain such very remarkable ranges (a plant appearing at 

 two points of the globe, distant about 12,000 miles from each other)." 



Californian Pines. 



Description of the Gigantic Trees of California. By Eemy, Archives de 

 Science Nat. et Phys, (Bib. Universelle de GeneveJ. 



The extent on which these giants of the forest are standing is not above 

 a mile in circuit, and its height above the coast-line is scarcely 5000 feet 

 (4883). The trees are about ninety in all, and the smallest has a diameter 

 of 1 5 feet ; and, as our author states, they surpass all the other trees of 

 the forest as much as the Italian Poplar surpasses the Osier ; or, as Virgil 

 has it, " Quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressi." Yellow Moss and 

 Lichens ornament their lofty stems, and a parasite (pace Newman alio- 

 rumque), of the genus ITypopithys, grows on their roots. The majority of 

 these trees have had their heads broken off by the incumbent masses of 

 snow which lodge on them in winter, and many have been much injured 

 by fire. One of them, as is generally known, has been stripped of its 

 bark to the extent of 100 feet ; and though this tree was peeled more than 

 two years ago, it stiU survives the loss of its rind. Whole families of people 

 could be comfortably accommodated in hollow spaces that have been con- 

 sumed by fires. The author gives the following description and dimensions 

 of the most remarkable. The big tree, 95 feet diameter, and 300 feet high. 

 Five men laboured twenty-five days in cutting down this immense tree, 

 A house and skittle-ground are erected on the stump ; room is left for 

 a pavilion, with benches, intended for theatrical representations. Tra- 

 vellers have estimated the age of some of the trees, which are not the 

 largest, at 3000 years ; but the author of this account estimates the age 

 oLthese at not more than 2000 years. The ' Miners' Cabin,' the 'Three 

 Sisters7 the 'Old Bachelor,' 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' 'Mister Shelby,' 

 'Bride of California,' etc., range from 70 to 95 feet diameter, and fi'om 

 280 to 360 feet in height. The father of the twenty-four children has 

 been laid prostrate for several years. The diameter of the base of the 

 patriarchal tree is 110 feet, and its probable estimated height 450. Truth 



