SEQUOIA 
Sequoia, Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 197 (1847); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. P/. iii. 429 (1880); Masters, 
Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxx, 22 (1892). 
Wellingtonia, Lindley, Gard. Chron. 1853, p. 823. 
Washingtonia, Winslow, Calif. Farmer, 1854, ex Hooker, Kew Journ. vii. 29 (1855). 
Gigantabies, Nelson (Senilis), Pinaceae, 77 (1886). 
Athrotaxis, Baillon, Hist. Pl. xii. 39 (1892). 
Steinhauera, Kuntze, Lexie. Gen. Phan. 533 (1904). 
TALL evergreen trees, belonging to the tribe Taxodineze of the order Conifere. 
Bark thick, of two layers, the outer thick, spongy and fibrous, the inner thin, close, 
and firm. Branches short and stout; lateral branchlets slender, terete, and 
deciduous. Buds and leaves different in the two species, the leaves having an 
undivided fibro-vascular bundle, with a single resin canal beneath it. 
Flowers moncecious, solitary, minute, appearing in early spring from buds 
formed in the previous autumn. Male flowers terminal or in the axils of the upper- 
most leaves, surrounded at the base by imbricated, ovate, acute, apiculate, involucral 
bracts ; stamens numerous, spirally arranged on an axis; filaments short, dilated 
into ovate incurved sub-peltate connectives, which bear on their inner surface two 
to five (usually three) pendulous globose two-valved anther-cells, opening below on 
the back; pollen simple. Female flowers terminal, the leaves gradually passing 
into the bracts, which are numerous, spirally imbricated, ovate, keeled on the back, 
acuminate with either long or short points, and adnate to short thick rounded 
ovuliferous scales which bear five to seven ovules, at first erect, ultimately becoming 
inverted. 
Cones pendulous, persistent after the fall of the seeds. Scales, formed by the 
enlargement of the united bracts and ovuliferous scales of the flowers, woody, with 
deciduous resin-glands, spirally arranged, wedge-shaped at the base, widening at 
the apex into oblong wrinkled discs, showing a transverse median depression, some- 
times tipped by a small spine. Seeds, 5 to 7 under each scale, pendulous, oblong- 
ovate, compressed, with two lateral wings. Seedlings with four to six cotyledons ; 
primary leaves linear-lanceolate, short-pointed, thin, spreading. 
Several fossil species of Sequoia are known, occurring earliest in the Cretaceous 
period in the holarctic region, becoming very widely spread over Europe, Northern 
Asia, and North America in Tertiary times. Two living species, inhabiting Cali- 
fornia, are distinguished. 
1. Seguota sempervirens, Endlicher. Coast range of California, and crossing 
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