EVERGREEN TREES AND SSRUBS. 579 



of it : " This one of our greatest accessions in the middle States, 

 being now perfectly hardy with us, and very distinctive. It is a 

 handsome, pyramidal tree, with numerous spreading branches, grow- 

 ing from forty to fifty feet high, found in the middle and northern 

 parts of Florida, where it is commonly known by the inhab- 

 itants as stinking cedar, and wild nutmeg. Our best specimen 

 is about eight feet high, very dense, showing nothing but foliage, 

 like a thrifty arbor-vitae, and remarkable, particularly in winter, for 

 the star-like appearance of the extreme tips of its shoots." 



THE SEQUOIA. Sequoia. 



This name has been given to those giant trees of California, 

 popularly known as the redwood, and the big-tree of California, 

 the latter being formerly named by botanists Washingtonia and 

 Wellingtonia. 



The Big-Tree of California. Sequoia gigantea ( Washing- 

 tonia, Wellingtonia). — The size of this giant among giants may 

 be imagined by the fact, that through the hollow of one. of the 

 felled trees, a man on horseback rode seventy-five feet, and came 

 out through a knot-hole in the side, without dismounting ! Trees 

 three hundred feet high are known, and one has been measured, 

 ■with a circumference of one hundred and six feet, four feet from 

 the ground. 



At Rochester, in the specimen grounds of Ellwanger & Barry, 

 are fine healthy specimens, from ten to sixteen feet high, that do 

 not seem to be injured in winter. In form they are as conical as 

 the balsam fir ; in foliage resemble the arbor-vitass. The branches 

 are numerous, straight, evenly and irregularly distributed from the 

 trunk, quite horizontal, and small in proportion to the size of the 

 trunk. The bark is of a light cinnamon color. The tree shows 

 early a tendency to cast its lower branches. The trunk swells to 

 great size at the base in proportion to the height of the tree, and 

 diminishes regularly and rapidly above, like the cypress. Annual 

 growth at the top from two to three feet. The foliage is mostly 



