WELLINGTONS GIGANTEA. 



207 



Fig. 48.— Male flowers of (1.) 

 Wellingtonia gigantea, and (2.) 

 Sequoia sempervirens. Natural 

 size. 



tonia will be still further distinguished by the structure of these parts." 

 Among the Coniferae, difference or identity of structure in the male 



flowers of any two or more kinds is important, 

 and often most important in deciding the 

 generic difference or affinity of those kinds. 

 Dr. Lindley never saw the male flowers of 

 the tree he named ; there was no competent 

 botanist, so far as we are aware, in California 

 to examine them till several years afterwards, 

 nor was it untd many years after its first 

 introduction that the oldest plants in Great 

 Britain began to produce them. But what 

 do they show 1 Not the further difference 

 that Dr. Lindley predicted, but an almost 

 perfect identity of structure with those of 

 Sequoia sempervirens.* To the botanist the 

 conclusion is inevitable, and hence it is that the generic name "Welling- 

 tonia has lost ground everywhere except in England, and is replaced 



by that of the Eedwood, 

 Sequoia, to which it is 

 so closely allied, as to 

 be no other than a 

 species. Sequoia has 

 priority of designation, 

 and must be retained ; 

 it was given by End- 

 licher, a botanist of ac- 

 knowledged reputation, 

 to the Eedwood (Taxo- 

 dium sempervirens of 

 Lambert), on the dis- 

 covery of differences 

 essentially generic 



Ti2 50— Cones of (1.) Wellingtonia gigantea and (2.) Sequoia 

 sempervirens, gathered by William Lobb in California. Natural size. 



* As regards size the male 

 flowers of Wellingtoma are 

 rather smaller than those of 

 the Eedwood, hut have larger 

 scales. 



The late Mr. A. Murray in 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle for 

 1866, p- 970, writes : "We 

 know that the cones and seeds (Wellingtonia and Eedwood) differ in nothing hut in size, and 

 evTin tMs ^ the difference is not so grelt as the specimens of English-grown cones would lead 

 Z to suppose In California, the cones of the Eedwood are often 2 inches long. The 

 marked Ection between the foliage of the two, is, that the leaves of Wellingtoma are 

 ^bricated scales, while those of the Sequoia (Eedwood) are , , d .f ^el "a^'has S 

 the Yew But the Eedwood at different ages dispenses with this character, and Has its 

 foHage Exactly the same as the Wellington^ j in this respect exhibiting the tendency to 

 dimorphism, which is common among the Cypresses and Junipers. 



