SEQUOIA gEMPEEVIEENS. 213 



eastern Continent in high latitudes. "As a fossil, their geographical 

 range extends from Greenland, latitude 70° K, to Sinigaglia in Italy, 

 latitude 44° N. ; and in an east and west direction from the Hebrides 

 (Isle of Mull), to the Steppe of the Kirghis,"* and, from recent dis- 

 coveries, also to Spitzbergen, northern Asia, &c. ; it is remarkable too 

 that the Miocene fossil plants found in latitude 83° K during the late 

 Arctic expedition under Sir G. Nares, includes the Eedwood, or its near 

 ally, Taxodium distichum. From the time of its greatest developement, 

 and through the succeeding periods, the Eedwood gradually disappeared 

 from the vast area over which it was spread, till it finally receded to 

 the strip of territory along the Pacific coast of north-western America ; 

 it is now confined to a narrow belt that extends, with occasional 

 interruptions, for about 500 miles. Although in numbers it at present 

 exceeds its gigantic congener, the "Wellingtonia, by millions; the extreme 

 restriction of its habitat cannot fail to be noted as a significant fact 

 in its present history. 



The Eedwood was discovered by Mr. Archibald Menzies, in 1795, 

 from whose specimens Mr. Lambert figured and described it in his 

 great work, The Genus Pinus, under the name of Taxodium sempervirens. 

 Nothing more was heard of it till David Douglas visited California 

 in 1831, but he, from some cause not now known, failed to 

 introduce it into England. Dr. Coulter, who travelled in California 

 in 1836, was the next botanist to make mention of it, but no seeds 

 were received from him. Ten years later Hartweg, when collecting 

 for the Horticultural Society of London, succeeded in sending to England 

 the first consignment of cones and seeds to which any authentic date 

 can be assigned, but Mr. Gordon affirms that it was introduced into 

 Europe by the Eussians in 1843, or three years earlier than the receipt 

 of Hartweg's consignment, t 



The Eedwood is the most valuable of all the Californian timber 

 trees to the inhabitants on the coast and in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of the districts where it abounds, but rather on account of its 

 cheapness and abundance than from any superior qualities it possesses. 

 The wood is light, brittle, close in grain, and of a beautiful red 

 colour, which renders it desirable for indoor carpentry ; it splits with 

 peculiar facility by means of wedges, so that it can be made into 

 planks without the use of a saw. On exposure to the weather it 

 shrinks endwise, but not across the grain. % Owing to the accessibility 

 of the Eedwood forests, due to their proximity to the coast, and to 

 their being traversed by innumerable streams, the consumption of Eed- 

 wood timber is proceeding at a rate that would almost exceed belief, 



* Sir C. Lyell, Geology, p. 260. 



+ Pmetvm, p. 380. Carrilre says it was introduced in 1840, but gives no particulars. 

 Traiti General ties Conifires, p. 211. 

 J Mr. C, Nordhoff in Harper's Magazine, from The Garden, vol. v., p. 83. 



