] 68 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



trunks were often 38 to 45 English feet in girth, 6 feet 

 above the ground : one tree was 300 English feet high, and 

 the first 192 feet were without any division into branches. 



Pinus Strobus grows in the eastern parts of the United 

 States of North America, especially on the east of the 

 Mississipi ; but it is found again in the Rocky Mountains 

 from the sources cf the Columbia to Mount Hood, or from 

 43 to 54 N. lat. It is called in Europe the Weymouth 

 Pine and in North America the White Pine: its ordi- 

 nary height does not exceed 160 to 192 En g. feet, but 

 several trees of 250 to 266 Eng. feet have been seen in 

 New Hampshire. (Dwight, Travels, Vol. i. p. 36 ; and 

 Emerson's Report on the Trees and Shrubs growing naturally 

 in the Forests of Massachusetts, 1846, p. 60-66.) 



Sequoia gigantea (Endl.), Condylocarpus (Sal.) from 

 New California ; like Pinus trigoua, about 300 English feet 

 high. 



The nature of the soil, and the circumstances of heat and 

 moisture on which the nourishment of plants depend, no 

 doubt influence the degree to which they flourish, and 

 the increase in the number of individuals in a species; 

 but the gigantic height attained by the trunks- of a few 

 among the many other nearly allied species of the same 

 genus, depends not on soil or climate; but, in the vegetable 

 as well as in the animal kingdom, on a specific organisation 

 and inherent natural disposition. I will cite as the greatest 

 contrast to the Araucaria imbricata of Chili, the Pinus 

 Douglasii of the Columbia River, and the Sequoia gigantea 

 of New California, which is from 245 to 300 Eng. 



