182 



THE UKOLOGICAL IIISTOUY OF PLANTS. 



loaves. 'IMiis ciune into goneriil use among tlio Chcro- 

 kcos, before the white man had any knowlo(l<jfc of it ; and 

 nftorwanl, in 1828, a ])erio(lieal was published in this 

 eharaeter by the missionaries. Se(|uo Yah was banished 

 from his home in Ahibama, with the rest of liis tribe, and 

 settled in New Mexieo, where he died in 184IJ. 



AVhen Kndlieher was preparin*^ his synopsis of the 

 conifers, in 1840, and liad established a number of new 

 genera, Dr. Jaelxm 'rseinidi, then livinj^ with Eiullieher, 

 brouglit before his notice this remarkuble man, and asked 

 liim to dedicate tliis red-wooded tree to the memory of a 

 literary genius so conspicuous among the red men of 

 America. Endiicher consented to do so, and only en- 

 deavored to nuike the name pronounceable by changing 

 two of its letlers. 



Eiullieher founded the genus on the redwood of the 

 Americans, Tttxodinin. svmpcrvirenf^ oi Land); aiul nanuMl 

 the s[)ecies Sequoia scmpcrvirctis. 'J'hese trees form largo 

 forests in California, which extend alo!ig the coast as far 

 as Oregon. Trees are there met with of liOO feet in height 

 and JJO feet in diameter. The seeds have been brought 

 to Europe a number of years ago, and we already see iu 

 upper Italy and around the liake of (Jeneva, and in Eng- 

 land, high trees ; but, on the other haiul, they iuivo not 

 proved successful arouiul Zurich. 



In I8r)5i, a second species of Se(pu)ia was discovered in 

 California, which, under the name of big tree, soon at- 

 taiiu'd a considerable celebrity. Limlley described it, in 

 185.'J, as WvUiiKifonia (/ii/dufcn : and, in the following 

 year, Decaisne and Torrey proved that it belonged to 

 Sequoia, and that it iiccordingly should be called Sequoia 

 (/it/an tea. 



While the Sequoia sempervirens, in spite of the de- 

 struetiveness of the AnuM'iean hunbermen, still forms 

 large fori'sts along the coast, the Sequoia (/iqanfea is con- 

 lined to the isolated clumps which are met with inland ut 



1 H 



