204 A MANUAL Of THE CONIFERS. 



Wellingtonia gigantea.— The Mammoth tree of California. A 

 tree of gigantic proportions, inhabiting in limited numbers the western 

 slopes of the Sierra Nevada, where it occurs in isolated patches or 

 groves. Although the largest of existing trees,* the Wellingtonia 

 remained unknown to the civilized world till the spring of 1852, when 

 it was accidentally discovered by a hunter, in the employ of the Union 

 Water Company of California, whose duty it was to supply the Com- 

 pany's men with fresh meat.f The spectator, accustomed to the arbo- 

 rescent vegetation of the temperate regions of the old world, or of 

 the Eastern States of America, looking upon a full grown tree for the 

 first time in its native home, beholds it with wonder and astonishment. 

 Its enormous trunk rises to a height of 300 feet, and even more, 

 with a circumference near the base of from 45 to 60 feet, J a living 

 column built by the hand of Nature, working silently through centuries 

 of time, and dwarfing by its prodigious bulk and altitude, the grandest 

 pillar ever raised by man. Denuded of branches to as much as one- 

 third of its height, and frequently more, the remainder of the trunk 

 to the summit is irregularly and somewhat scantily furnished with 

 branches that are small in proportion to the gigantic stem from which 

 they spring, and clothed with foliage on their terminal branchlets only. 

 Such is the Wellingtonia in its hoary age in its native home; it is 

 gigantic, ponderous, and imposing, but it cannot be called beautiful. 



Very different is the appearance of the young trees in England, now 

 seen in almost every park and garden. These have a straight erect 

 trunk, covered with tough stringy bark, and thickly furnished with 

 branches, gradually contracting in length from the base upwards, so 

 that they present a conical outline, so formal and so sharply defined 

 as to enable them to be readily distinguished from all other trees. 

 The branches are at first horizontal, but in time curve downwards by 

 their own weight, the branchlets being clustered at the extremities, 

 and for the most part ascending, but some are drooping. The leaves 

 are spirally arranged around the branchlets, generally three completing 



* Some of the Eucalypti of Australia have attained a greater height than any 'Welling- 

 tonia at present standing, but the diameter of their trunks is considerably less. Trunks of 

 the Adansonia or Baobab of Africa hare been found with a greater diameter, but their 

 height is not proportionate. 



t Professor Whitney, Yosemite Book. 



% Professor Whitney, The Yosemite, Book. That is, at about' 10 feet from the ground, 

 above which the trunks taper regularly, but below they are greatly enlarged by projecting 

 buttresses, so that the circumference at the ground is often upwards of 100 feet> 



