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XXVIII. 



THE OCCUEEENCE OF A SEQUOIA AT WASHING BAY. 



By T. JOHNSON, D.Sc, E.L.S., 

 Professor of Botany, Eoyal College of Science for Ireland ; 



AND 



JANE G. GILMOEE, B.Sc. 

 [Plates XIII, XIV.] 



Read Junk 28. Published August 29f 1921. 



In the course of examination of the Washing Bay core we have met with not 

 only isolated seeds and pollen-grains of the genns IScquoia, the only Conifer 

 found in it, but fortunately foliage shoots and cone-bearing twigs also, 

 enabling us to identify the fossil. 



Sequoia (or Wellingtonia) has a very limited present-day geographical 

 range, being confined to the west Pacific coast of North California (and 

 Oregon). One species, S. sempervirens (Sargent) (1), theEedwood, grows on 

 sandstone to the height of 400 feet and a diameter of 28 feet, exposed to the 

 warm Pacific winds and fogs, mainly in a mountain forest belt along the coast 

 of California ; it ascends to 3,000 feet, and rarely occurs inland more than 

 20 miles. Sequoia gigantea or Sequoia Wellingtonia (1) (Sargent sp.), the 

 Mammoth tree, the other living species, grows between SG'-oO" N., on the 

 western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, up to elevations of 8,000 feet, lives to 

 4,000 years of age, reaches a height of 320 feet or more, and a diameter of 

 35 feet. 



Though now recognized as one of the wonders of nature, the first-named 

 of these giants of the forest was not discovered until 1847, a date it is well to 

 keep in mind in criticizing the Conifer identifications of the earlier palaeo- 

 botanists (e.g., of the Mull plants) . 1 1 is generally agreed that Sequoia,ih& only 

 member of the family Sequoiineae, is a very ancient genus, and represents 

 one of the earliest families of Conifers. It has been traced, at any rate, to 

 the earliest Cretaceous beds, increasing in frequency and variety of form into 

 the Miocene, in which it is represented by many species. It was one of the 

 many circumpolar or Arctic genera which radiated southwards during the 

 Cretaceous and early Tertiary epochs. Like many other genera now confined 



