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trees, as is readily seen by the way in which one-sided stems are often grouped 
around a hollow, from which the old stump has rotted away. At the present day 
reproduction is mainly effected by suckers, the proportion of these to seedlings being as 
100 to 1. Seeds do not germinate except in open places, and young seedlings, requiring 
plenty of light to grow, are usually suppressed by the shade of the suckers, which, 
being well nourished by the roots of the parent tree, grow fast in dense shade. 
The habit of the tree perpetuating itself by suckers seems to have impaired the 
vitality of the seed, as only 15 to 25 per cent of it proved fertile in experiments 
made by Mr. P. Rock of Golden Gate Park. 
The topography of the redwood belt is uneven, and the character of the forest 
in consequence is very varied. The mountains of the coast range rise to altitudes of 
1000 to 2000 feet, and consist of two or three ridges parallel to the coast, through which 
rivers and streams have cut deep valleys in some places, and formed wide alluvial 
flats in others. On the steep slopes and at the higher elevations, where the soil is 
shallow and dry, the redwood is always mixed with Douglas, hemlock, Adzes grandis, 
and two or three other species, and is comparatively small in size and less dense 
upon the ground. It is only at low altitudes, in the deep soil of alluvial flats and in 
ravines, where the water-supply is great, that the redwood grows as practically pure 
forest, and attains a great size and density; but even here a few trees of Sitka spruce 
and hemlock are usually associated with it. Absolutely pure stands, however, occur 
on flat tracts near streams, and in these the shade is so great that nothing grows upon 
the ground but Oxaéis and a few tufts of Aspidium munitum. | saw a stand of this 
kind close to the Smith River, where the trees were of enormous size and of 
incredible density upon the ground. One tree measured 51 feet in girth. The 
river bank was fringed with Alnus oregona 50 to 60 feet high, behind which were two 
or three rows of taller Uméellularia; and a single Lawson cypress, 200 feet high, had 
taken refuge on theriver bank. Behind this screen there were only redwoods towering 
far above the other trees. On the slopes the ground cover was dense and impenetrable, 
consisting mainly of Aspzdzum attaining an immense size, Acer circinatum, Rhamnus 
Purshiana, Gaultheria Shallon, Rubus, etc. According to R. T. Fisher, of the U.S. 
Forestry Service, of whose paper’ I have made use in this account, the redwood 
slopes, where the tree is mixed in varying proportions, cover fifty times as large an 
area as the redwood flats, where the tree is pure or nearly so. 
Near Crescent City the flat which extends for about three miles in width from 
the ocean to the first hill of the coast range was originally covered with a mixture of 
redwood, Sitka spruce, and hemlock, most of which is now cut away. On the bluffs 
of the sea-shore a few small trees of Pzxus contorta take refuge, while behind them 
and inland there are scattered groves of second-growth spruce, about 50 feet high. 
The first slope, exposed to the south-west and rising to 500 feet, is a dense stand 
of virgin spruce and hemlock, the trees attaining 200 feet high by 15 feet in girth. 
Crossing the hill to the north-east slope the first redwoods are seen, and from here 
inland for about eight miles over rolling country the redwood is the dominant tree, 
enormous in size and thick upon the ground. Afterwards, ascending the gorge of 
1 «The Redwood”: U.S. Forestry Bulletin, No, 38 (1903). 
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