SEQUOIA AND ITS HISTORY. 589 
Suppose Elliottia had happened to be collected only once, a 
good while ago, and all knowledge of the limited and obscure 
locality were lost; and meanwhile the Japanese form came to be 
known. Such a case would be parallel with an actual one. A 
specimen of a peculiar plant (Shortia galacifolia) was detected in 
the herbarium of the elder Michaux, who collected it (as his auto- 
graph ticket shows) somewhere in the high Alleghany Mountains, 
more than eighty years ago. No one has seen the living plant 
since or knows where to find it, if haply it still flourishes in some 
secluded spot. At length it is found in Japan; and I had the 
satisfaction of making the identification.* One other relative is 
also known in Japan; and another, still unpublished, has just 
been detected in Thibet. 
Whether the Japanese and the Alleghanian plants are exactly 
the same or not, it needs complete specimens of the two to settle. 
So far as we know they are just alike, and even if some difference 
Were discerned between them, it would not appreciably alter 
the question as to how such a result came to pass. Each and 
every one of the analogous cases I have been detailing — and 
very many more could be mentioned — raises the same question, 
and would be satisfied with the same answer. 
These singular relations attracted my curiosity early in the 
course of my botanical studies, when comparatively few of them 
were known, and my serious attention in later years, when I had 
humerous and new Japanese plants to study in the collections 
made (by Messrs. Williams and Morrow) during Commodore 
Perry’s visit in 1853, and, especially, by Mr. Charles Wright, in 
Commodore Rodgers’ expedition in 1855. I then discussed this 
Subject somewhat fully, and tabulated the facts within my reach. 
This was before Heer had developed the rich fossil botany of 
the Arctic zone, before the immense antiquity of existing species 
of plants was recognized, and before the publication of Darwin’s 
now famous volume on the “Origin of Species” had introduced and 
familiarized the scientific world with those now current ideas 
Tespecting the history and vicissitudes of species with which I 
attempted to deal in a moderate and feeble way. 
My speculation was based upon the former glaciation of the 
sorthern temperate zone, and the inference of a warmer period 
* Amer. Jour. Science, 1867, p. 402; Proceed. Amer. Acad., 8, p. 244. 
t Mem. Amer. Acad. vol 6. 
