232 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap, x 



ment in these more bulky seeds enables the young plants 

 to tide over the first summer's drought. It is clear, 

 therefore, that there are no indications of natural decay 

 in these forest giants. In every stage of their growth 

 they are vigorous and healthy, and they have nothing to 

 fear except from the destroying hand of man. 



Destruction from this cause is, however, rapidly diminish- 

 ing both the giant Sequoia and its near ally the noble 

 redwood {Sequoia sempervirens), a tree which is more 

 beautiful in foliage and in some other respects more 

 remarkable than its brother species, while there is reason 

 to believe that under favourable conditions it reaches an 

 equally phenomenal size. It once covered almost all the 

 coast ranges of central and northern California, but has 

 been long since cleared away in the vicinity of San 

 Francisco, and greatly diminished elsewhere. A grove 

 is preserved for the benefit of tourists near Santa Cruz, 

 the largest tree being 296 feet high, 29 feet diameter 

 at the ground, and 15 feet at 6 feet above it. One of 

 these trees having a triple trunk is here figured from a 

 photograph. Much larger trees, however, exist in the 

 great forests of this tree in the northern part of the 

 State, but these are rapidly being destroyed for the 

 timber, which is so good and durable as to be in great 

 demand. Hence Californians have a saying that the red- 

 wood is too good a tree to live. On the mountains a few 

 miles east of the Bay of San Francisco, there are numbers 

 of patches of young redwoods indicating where large trees 

 have been felled, it being a peculiarity of this tree that it 

 sends up vigorous young plants from the roots of old ones 

 immediately around the base. Hence in the forests these 

 trees often stand in groups arranged nearly in a circle, 

 thus marking out the size of the huge trunks of their 

 parents. It is from this quality that the tree has been 

 named " sempervirens," or ever flourishing. Dr. Gibbons, 

 of Alameda, who has explored all the remains of the 

 redwood forests in the neighbourhood of Oakland, kindly 

 took me to see the old burnt-out stump of the largest tree 

 he had discovered. It is situated about 1,500 feet above 

 the sea^and is 34 feet in diameter at the ground. This 



