44 FIELD AND FOREST. 



Other spring flowers, having been noticed in flower. Strawberries and 

 blackberries with ripe fruit. Second crop apples as large as English 

 Walnuts, and Chinquapins with burs just forming. 



Mr. Sanborn gave demonstration of the ease with which a small roll 

 of common bees-wax can be made to answer the purpose of a univer- 

 versal joint, for focussing objects under a hand microscope. 



The Big Tree. 



There are many big trees in America and in other quarters of the 

 globe, but this homely term has become the distinctive appellation of 

 the Sequoia gigaiitea, a conifer of California of extraordinary size and 

 great height, known to exist nowhere else. It was named by Dr. Lind- 

 ley the Wellingtonia gigantea, who overlooked the fact of its close 

 affinity with the Segiioia sempervirens, or redwood, described by End- 

 licher six years previously. In 1847 ^ discovery that the two belonged 

 to the same genus was made by the French botanist Decaisne, and by 

 our own Dr. Torrey a few months afterwards ; and thus was avoided 

 the mortification of seeing this wonderful form of the flora of America 

 bearing the name of a British soldier. 



While there are isolated redwoods of enormous size — one reported 

 by Prof. Whitney fifty feet in circumference, one by Prof. Brewer 

 fifty-eight, and one recently described in a scientific meeting in San 

 Francisco as equalling the largest known specimen of the "big tree " 

 proper — the superiority of 6". gigantea in growth and skyward reach is 

 indubitable. The Santa Cruz redwood is said to be 275 feet high, 

 but the big tree ("Keystone State,") in the Calaveras Grove, is fifty 

 feet higher, if their respective measurements are correct. jNIariposa 

 Grove, which is now a reservation granted by Congress to the State of 

 California upon condition of perpetual care and preservation, contains 

 five to six hundred trees, 125 of which exceed 40 feet in circumference, 

 and some of them fall little short of 100 feet. These are larger than 

 the average of the Calaveras Grove, and probably older, but none 

 equal the height of the tallest in that locality, the tops of several being 

 broken off, the highest measurement being 272 feet. The largest, 

 the Grizzly Giant, is 93 feet 7 inches in circumference, without allow- 



