544 Sennj Woodwa7^d — Address to the Geologists Association. 



then was not only a sub-aerial vegetable accumulation like peat, 

 but itself formed a soil on which the vegetation continued to live.^ 



Before quitting the subject of Palaeophytology, I would desire to 

 direct your attention, in the briefest possible manner, to the eloquent 

 discourse of Prof. Asa Gray,^ delivered a year since to the American 

 Association at Dubuque, Iowa, on the relation between Fossil Plants 

 and the existing Flora of our Northern Hemisphere. 



Prof. Gray describes the varied aspect of the great North 

 American continent from the east to the west coast, and dwells 

 especially upon the scenery of the westward slopes of the high 

 mountain barrier, which, refreshed by the Pacific, bears the noble 

 forests of the Sierra Nevada and the coast-range, and among them 

 trees which are the wonder of the world. 



" Although (says Dr. Asa Gray) no account and no photographic 

 representation of either species of the far-famed Sequoia trees gives 

 any adequate impression of their singular majesty — still less of their 

 beauty — yet my interest in them did not culminate merely nor 

 mainly in considerations of their size and age. Other trees in other 

 parts of the world may claim to be older. Certain Australian Gum- 

 trees (Eucalypti) are said to be taller. Some, we are told, rise so 

 high that they might even cast a flicker of shadow upon the summit 

 of the pyramid of Cheops. Yet the oldest of them doubtless grew 

 from seed which was shed long after the names of the pyramid- 

 builders had been forgotten. So far as we can judge from the actual 

 counting of the layers of several trees, no Sequoia now alive can 

 sensibly antedate the Christian era. . . . One notable thing about 

 these Sequoia trees is their isolation. These ' redwoods ' or ' big 

 trees' belong to the Cypress family, but are sui generis. Thus 

 isolated systematically, and extremely isolated geographically, and 

 so wonderful in size and port, they more than other trees suggest 

 questions. 



"Were they created thus local and lonely denizens of California 

 only ; one in limited numbers in a few choice spots on the Sierra 

 Nevada, the other along the Coast-Range from the Bay of Monterey 

 to the frontiers of Oregon ? Are they veritable Melchisedecs without 

 pedigree or early relationship, and possibly fated to be without 

 descent ? 



" Are they now coming upon the stage ? Or are they remnants, 

 sole and scanty survivors of a race that has played a grander part 

 in the past, but is now verging to extinction ? Have they had a 

 career, and can we ascertain or surmise whence they came, and how 

 and when ? " 



Prof. Asa Gray then proceeds to show that not many generations 

 of Sequoias can have flourished just where they now are found, as 

 there are all around abundant evidences of the very recent glaciation 

 of the whole area. 



He then endeavours to trace the former distribution of Sequoia — as 



^ See "Relics of the Carboniferous and other Old Land-surfaces" by H. "Woodward, 

 Proc. Geol. Association, 1872, vol. ii. p. 231. 

 2 Silliman's American Journal, October, 1872, p. 282. 



