99 



TAXODIACEAE. 



A. OONCOLOB Lindl. & Gord. White Fir. Old bark roughly and deeply fur- 

 rowed, drab or grayish; Leaves glaucous or dull green, flat or on cone-bearing 

 branches keeled above, acute or rarely notched at apex, spreading in two ranks 

 or curving upwards, with a twisl in the short petiole; cones 2 to 5y 2 in. long, 

 bracts not exserted.- -High Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges, 3800 to 6000 

 feet, a tree 60 to L50 ft. high. 



A. magnifica Muir. Red Fir. Old bark deeply divided into roughly broken 

 ridges, reddish brown; leaves thickened below and a little above so as to be 

 subterete or somewhat t-sided, thicker on the uppermost branches, curving 

 upwards but not twisted, sessile; cones 4 to 8 in. long; bracts concealed or 

 exserted.— High Siena Nevada and Coast Ranges, 6000 to 9000 ft., a forest 

 tree of great beauty. 60 to 175 ft. high. 



A. VENUSTA Koch., Santa Lucia Fir, with long-exserted bristles to the cones. — 

 Santa Lucia Mts. 



TAXODIACEAE. Redwood Family. 



Trees with linear or awl-shaped alternate leaves. Staminate and ovulate cat- 

 kins on the same tree. Staminate catkins small. Scales of the ovulate catkins 

 spirally arranged, more or less blended with the bract, often spreading hori- 

 zontally from the axis of the cone and developed into broad flattish summits. 

 Ovules to each scale 2 to 9. Seeds not winged or merely margined. 



1. SEQUOIA Endl. Redwood. 



Tall trees with thick, red, fibrous bark and linear, awl-shaped, or scale-like 

 leaves. Staminate catkins terminal on the branchlets or on short lateral 

 branchlets, with many spirally disposed stamens, each bearing 2 to 5 pollen-sacs. 

 Ovulate catkins terminal, composed of many spirally arranged scales, each with 

 5 to 7 ovules at base. Cone woody, its scales divergent at right angles to the 

 axis, widening upward and forming a broad rhomboidal wrinkled summit with a 

 depressed center. Seeds flattened; seed-leaves 2 to 6. (The Cherokee Indian, 

 Sequoyah, who invented an alphabet for his tribe.) 



1. S. sempervirens Endl. Redwood. Tall and massive forest tree 100 to 

 340 ft. high, the trunk 2 to 16 ft. in diameter; bark % to 1 ft. thick; foliage 

 reddish brown; haves linear, spreading right and left so as to form flat sprays, 

 14 to 114 (mostly Tj to "•:) in. long and 1 to 1*4 lines wide, or in the top 

 of adult trees with short linear acuminate leaves 3 to 5 lines long, such branch- 

 lets strikingly BUggestive of those of the Big Tree; cones oval, reddish brown, 

 % to ]i s in. lone and % to T s in. thick, borne in clusters on the ends of 

 branchlets mostly in the top of the tree, maturing in first autumn; scales 14 to 

 24j seeds narrowly margined, elliptic in outline, 2 lines long; cotyledons 

 usually 2. 



The Redwood is the most characteristic and abundant forest tree of the imme- 

 diate coasl region. It is seldom found 30 miles from the ocean, never ranging 

 inland beyond the influence of the sea-fogs, and forms a narrow belt along the 

 coasl from southern Monterey Co. to the Oregon line. It is a common tree 

 in the Santa Cruz Mis., where there is an especially fine grove famous as the 

 "Santa Cruz Big Trees." In the Mt. Diablo Range the Redwood is not known 

 except in one Limited locality about Redwood Peak, in the Oakland Hills, directly 

 opposite the Golden Gate. It occurs aboul Mr. Tamalpais and is abundant in 

 Sonoma and Mendocino cos. in Napa Valley it is rather frequent and beyond 

 the Bummil of Howell Mountain it descends the Blope towards Pope Valley. It 

 thus crosses at one point the divide of the North Coast Ranges and this locality 



