36 TIMBER 
are procurable, and it is said can be obtained up to 
200 ft. in length. The consumption has shown consider- 
able increase in England, even with the heavy freight 
charges incidental to its having to be shipped right 
round the South of America, but with a lessened cost in 
prospect, when the Panama Canal is completed, it may 
be predicted that increased sources of consumption will 
speedily follow. 
Sequoia.—Only two living species of this coniferous 
tree are now supposed to be existent; fossil remains, 
however, disclose that over forty additional species 
have at earlier periods been common in various parts 
of the world. Both the surviving members of the 
family are found in California, and particulars of their 
growth are so full of interest that a rather extended 
account may perhaps be given. 
Dealing with the one commonly known as Red- 
wood, which is the variety in commercial use, it is 
understood that its growth is restricted to a belt of 
coast-land bordering the Pacific, some 450 miles in 
length and about twenty miles in breadth. The trees 
reach their most perfect development in Humboldt 
County, where virgin forests, which may be traversed 
for over twenty miles, are monopolized by these great 
trees. 
Said to be very fast growing for the first thirty or 
forty years, they add perhaps 2 ft. per year to their 
height during this period, while in their early age, 
between four and ten years, they possibly grow 2 ft. 6 in. 
per year. They attain, at mature age, a height of 
100 to 340 ft. 
The tree sometimes reproduces itself from seed, but 
more usually, and when growing in thick forests, by the 
growth of stump sprouts, this being the only coniferous 
tree which has this habit, Huge lateral roots spread 
