THE WELLINfeTONIA 135 



general of modern heroes ; let it, then, bear henceforth the name of 

 Welli/ngtonia gigantea." 



- This appropriation was not pleasing to the Ameri- 

 cans, who, too late, suggested that the tree should be 

 ■called Washingtonia. A more complete knowledge 

 ■of the flowers of this species, however, soon showed its 

 •close affinity to the Redwood, so that it had to bear 

 the name Sequoia gigantea of Decaisne. 



Both trees, when young, have a rapidly-tapering 

 stem covered with a thick, spongy, fibrous, reddish- 

 forown bark, and are surrouiided by close-set, slender 

 branches, the lowermost sweeping gracefully to the 

 ground, whilst the upper ones shorten so regularly as 

 to produce a pyramidal outline of which many critics 

 •complain. The stems of both species as they get 

 ■older project below in broad rounded buttress-like 

 Tidges several feet across ; but so thick a bark as that 

 '■of the Wellingtonia, in which it reaches two or three 

 feet, is, perhaps, never formed in the Redwood. The 

 main differences between the species are in the foliage 

 and in the size of their cones. The Redwood has 

 yew-like leaves, spreading in two alternating rows 

 ^long its twigs. The Wellingtonia, on the other hand, 

 has short, awl-shaped, rigid leaves, closely adpressed 

 to the stem, bluish-green at first, but becoming a 

 ■dull grass-green. The cones of the Redsrood are 

 ■egg-shaped, not exceeding an inch in length and 

 made up of from fifteen to twenty scales, whilst 

 those of the Wellingtonia are twice as large, and 

 liave from twenty-five to thirty scales. 



The Wellingtonia, or Mammoth-tree, as we some- 

 times call it, has never been known to be as abundant 



