182 THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OP PLANTS. 



leaves. This came into general use among the Chero- 

 kees, before the white man had any knowledge of it ; and 

 afterward, in 1828, a periodical was published in this 

 character by the missionaries. Sequo Yah was banished 

 from his home in Alabama, with the rest of his tribe, and 

 settled in Ifew Mexico, where he died in 1843. 



When Endlicher was preparing his synopsis of the 

 conifers, in 1846, and had established a number of new 

 genera, Dr. Jacbon Tschudi, then liTing with Eadlicher, 

 brought before his notice this remarkable man, and asked 

 him to dedicate this red-wooded tree to the memory of a 

 literary genius so conspicuous among the red men of 

 America. Endlicher consented to do so, and only en- 

 deavored to make the name pronounceable by changing 

 two of its letters. 



Endlicher founded the genus on the redwood of the 

 Americans, Taxodium sempervirens of Lamb ; and named 

 the species Sequoia sempervirens. These trees form large 

 forests in California, which extend along the coast as far 

 as Oregon. Trees are there met with of 300 feet in height 

 and 20 feet in diameter. The seeds have been brought 

 to Europe a number of years ago, and we already see in 

 upper Italy and around the Lake of Geneva, and in Eng- 

 land, high trees ; but, on the other hand, they have not 

 proved successful around Zurich. 



In 1852, a second species of Sequoia was discovered in 

 California, which, under the name of big tree, soon at- 

 tained a considerable celebrity. Lindley described it, in 

 1853, as Wellingtonia gigantea ; and, in the following 

 year, Decaisne and Torrey proved that it belonged to 

 Sequoia, and that it accordingly should be called Sequoia 

 gigantea. 



While the Sequoia sempervirens, in spite of the de- 

 structiveness of the American lumbermen, still forms 

 large forests along the coast, the Sequoia gigantea is con- 

 fined to the isolated clumps which are met with inland at 



