LUTHER BURBANK 
A tree that has weathered successive ice ages 
should not mind the winters of the present era, 
even at the northern boundaries of the United 
States, one might suppose. But such an inference 
misses the chief point of the Sequoia’s ancestral 
story. In point of fact, the giant trees are alive to- 
day in something like their pristine form because 
they migrated before the ice sheets and finally 
found a place of refuge west of the Sierras where 
they were sheltered from the northern blasts and 
given protection by the tempered breezes of the 
Pacific. As compared with the other conifers— 
pines, spruces, hemlocks, cedars, and the rest—the 
Sequoias are really tender trees. They are hardy 
indeed in contrast with their ancestors of still re- 
moter geological times. But they have never devel- 
oped that extreme hardiness that characterizes 
their modified and stunted cousins. 
Nevertheless it has been found possible to raise 
the Sequoia gigantia as far north as Central New 
York. But the tree does not really thrive in regions 
so inhospitable, and the redwood is even more 
tender. In central and south-central regions of 
the United States, however, the giant trees can be 
grown to better advantage, and here they should 
find a place as ornamental trees that has not hith- 
erto been accorded them. 
In the region of Washington, D. C., the Sequoia 
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