American Association at Dubuque. 283 
Sierra Nevada and the Coast Range, and among them trees 
which are the wonder of the world. As I stood in their shade, 
in the groves of Mariposa and Calaveras, and again under the 
canopy of the commoner redwood, raised on columns of such 
majestic height and ample girth, it occurred to me that I could 
not do better than to share with you, upon this occasion, some 
of the thoughts which possessed my mind. In their develop- 
ment they may perhaps lead us up to questions of considerable 
Scientific interest. 
I shall not detain you with any remarks (which would now 
be trite) upon the size or longevity of these far-famed Sequoia 
trees, or of the sugar pines, incense cedar, and firs associated 
with them, of which even the prodigious bulk of the dominating 
Sequoia does not sensibly diminish the grandeur. Although 
Ho 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 inter- 
est in them did not culminate merely nor mainly in considera- 
tions of their size and age. Other trees in other parts of the 
world may claim to be older. Certain Australian um trees 
( Eucalypt:) are said to be taller. Some, we are told, rise so 
Judge from the actual counting of the layers of several trees, no 
Sequoia now alive can sensibly antedate the Christian era. 
guishing appellations seems proper enough. But the tablets 
of personal names which are affixed to many of them in the 
venerable trunks so placarded has recorded in annual lines the 
lifetime of the individual thus associated with it, one may ques- 
Whether it be the man or the tree that is honored in the connec- 
tion, probably either would live as long in fact and in memory 
Without it, 
