208 A MANUAL OF THE CONIFER*. 



between that tree and the deciduous Cypress (T. distichum) of the 

 Atlantic States. Endlicher selected his name in honour of " Sequoyah, 

 a Cherokee Indian of mixed blood, better known by his English 

 name of George Guess, who is supposed to have been born about 

 1770, and who lived in Will's Valley, in the extreme north-eastern 

 corner of Alabama. He became known to the world by his invention 

 of an alphabet, and a written language for his tribe. This alphabet, 

 which was constructed with wonderful ingenuity, consisted of eighty- 

 six characters, each representing a syllable, and it had already come 

 into use to a considerable extent before the whites had heard any- 

 thing of it. Driven with the rest of his tribe beyond the Mississippi, 

 he died in New Mexico in 1843. His. remarkable alphabet is still 

 in use, although destined to pass away with his nation, but not into 

 oblivion, for his name attached to one of the grandest and most 

 impressive productions of the vegetable kingdom will for ever keep 

 his memory green." * 



The habitat of the "VVellingtonia, for so it will be called in England 

 for a long time to come, is remarkable. The trees occur in isolated 

 patches or groves along the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada for 

 about 180 miles parallel with the crest. There are eight of these 

 groves, all of them included between latitudes 36° and 38° 15' N, 

 or extending but little beyond these parallels. The Calaveras Grove, 

 where the tree was first discovered, and where "William Lobb obtained 

 the first supply of cones and seeds brought to England, is the most 

 northerly ; it is about 200 miles east from San Francisco ; and one 

 on the south fork of the Tule is the most southerly. The vertical range 

 is also limited; the trees nowhere descend much below 5,000 feet above 

 sea level, nor above 7,500 feet ; their highest elevation is towards their 

 southern limit, and they occur lower down proceeding northwards. 



Not only is the habitat restricted to the narrow limits above 

 described, but also the Sequoia (Wellingtonia) exists in " numbers so 

 limited that the trees of the different groves have been counted, 

 except near their southern limit, where they form a colossal forest 

 40 miles long and 3 to 10 broad, whose continuity is broken only 

 by the deep sheer-walled canons that intersect the mountains, f A 

 species limited to individuals holds its existence by a precarious 

 tenure, and this (the Wellingtonia) has a foothold only in a few 

 sheltered spots of a happy mean in temperature and locally favoured 

 with moisture in summer. Even there, for some reason or other, the 

 Pines \ with which it is associated, the Eirs,§ and even the Incense 

 Cedar, || possess a great advantage ; and though they strive in vain 



* Professor Whitney, The Tosemite Book. 



t Sir J. D. Hooker, Address to ilic Members of the Royal Institution, April, 1878. 



% Pinus ponderosa and P. Lairibertiana. § Abies grandis and A. coneolor. 



II Lihocedrus decurrens. 



