Big Tree 



Leaves awl-shaped and appressed; cones 5 to 8 cm. long. 

 Leaves mostly flat and spreading; cones 2.5 to 4 cm. long. 



87 



1. 5. Washingtoniana. 



2. 5. sempenirens. 



I. BIG TREE — Sequoia Washingtoniana (Winslow) Sudworth 



Taxodium Washingtonianum Winslow. Wellingtonia gigantea Lindley 



Sequoia gigantea Decaisne, not Endlicher. Sequoia Wellingtonia Seemann 



This enormous tree is also called Sequoia, Giant sequoia, and Mammoth tree, 

 and is noteworthy for its size, massive trunk, and great age. It is confined to a 

 narrow belt about 250 miles long, along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada 

 Mountains in California, at altitudes of from 1500 to 2500 meters, its northern limit 



Fig. 66. — Big Tree. 



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being in Placer county, where only a few old trees occur; southward, to Tulare 

 county, however, trees of all ages and sizes occur, from seedlings up to the ancient 

 monarch 5000 years old and nearly 100 meters tall, with a trunk over 10 meters 

 in diameter. 



The trunk is swollen and often buttressed at the base, above which it is con- 

 siderably ridged and gradually tapering. The branches of young trees are crowded 

 from the ground up, slender and pendulous below; toward the top they are more 

 upright, forming a stiff, narrow conic tree. On very large, old trees the branches 

 have disappeared for 30 meters or more, above which they are irregular and more 

 or less contorted, fonping a rounded, often picturesque head. The bark of old 

 trees is frequently 6 dm. thick, divided into broad plates often 1.5 m. wide, the sur- 



