FOREST TREES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 139 



be split Into quarter or half logs before it can be milled. Felling one of these 

 monster trees requires several days' labor of two or three expert men, and when 

 the tree goes flown its weight is so enormous that not infrequently it is so com- 

 pletely demolished that not a foot of saw-timber is available. This is true 

 mainly of the Sierra Sequoia, the wood of which, in very old trees, is somewhat 

 more brittle than that of the const sequoia. 



The longevity of these trees is still unsettled. Claims are made thai the 

 Sierra species attains an age of from 4. mm to 5,000 years. .Many of the largest 

 trees have been wholly or partly destroyed, making it difficult to obtain con- 

 vincing records. It is sale to assert, however, that some of the largest trees 

 are at least 4,000 years old. while most of the average large trees now standing, 

 like many that have been cut. are about 2,000 to 2,500 years old. Their height 

 is from -!~> to 350 feet, or in very rare instances calculated to lie nearly 400 feet, 

 with diameters of from 10 to 18 feet, or unusually of from 25 to 27 feet. 



Two distinct species are known. One is confined practically to the coast 

 mountains and the other to the Sierras of California. The coast species extends 

 a few miles into Oregon. 



Bigtree. 

 Sequoia washingtoniana (Winsl.) Sudworth. 



DISTINCT rSHING CHARACTERISTICS. 



What the technical name id' this sequoia should he. is still a matter of disa- 

 greement among authors. Sequoia wellingtonia Seeman (1855) was revived 

 in 1896 by an eminent American tree botanist and again perpetuated in 1905. 

 Ten years ago" the writer proposed an older name. Sf. washingtoniana (Winsl., 

 1854), later discussing fully the basis of his decision.'' The argument given 

 then has not since been overthrown, nor does it seem likely to be. if the evidence 

 brought then is justly weighed. The unsupported assertion has, however, been 

 made that Dr. C. F. Winslow's Taxodium washingtonianum, upon which 

 Sequoia washingtoniana is based, was not technically published. Cut a careful 

 examination of Doctor Winslow's statement (loc. cit.) should certainly he con- 

 vincing, fortunately, that s></i">i<i wellingtonia is not entitled to stand for this 

 grandest of all American forest trees. 



Barring actual specific differences which abundantly distinguish the bigtree 

 from the redwood, it seems in general appearance to be only a more massive 

 and grander edition of the latter species. Its huge trunk, greatly buttressed 

 at the base and very deeply and widely furrowed, bears much the same, but 

 lighter, cinnamon-red bark. .Much larger ridges and deeper furrows mark these 

 trunks than do those of the redwood. The bark is excessively thick at the 

 base of old trunks, often from 12 to is inches or more. It is soft, almost 

 spongy, and composed of line fibers, which are constantly breaking away 

 through various agencies- weather, wind. and. not the least, the incessant 

 Climbing of red squirrels. Excepl where it has been consumed by lire, the 

 accumulation of ages of this wearing may be seen about the trunks, where it 

 has fallen in the form of masses of fme red-brown bark. Outer, unbroken, 

 filmy scales of the bark are a purplish or leaden gray. Young trees from 10 

 to 20 inches in diameter, probably through the protection of their limbs, retain 

 this outer film of bark and are therefore of a much grayer tone, which is the 

 color also of the smooth, unbroken bark of still younger trees. The bark of the 

 branches of old trees is the same color and exceedingly thin. 



■ Soo Bulletin 14. Dlv. For.. D. S. Dept. Agr., 61, 1897 

 "See Bulletin 17, Div. For., U. S. Dept. Agr., 28, 1898. 



