102 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



For so famous a tree the name 

 " Big Tree " is the best English one, 



by reason of its fitness 

 English Name, and its established use 



among the people who 

 know the tree best, and therefore we 

 adhere to it. 



No tree has been so often described, 

 and the best account we have read of 



its effect and beauty — 

 Beauty. which concern us most 



— is that of John Muir 

 in " The Mountains of California." He 

 says : " These giants bulge consider- 

 ably at the base, but not more than is 

 required for beauty and safety; the only 

 reason why this bulging seems in some 

 cases excessive is that only a small sec- 

 tion of the shaft is seen at once. One 

 that I measured in the Kings River 

 Forest was 25 feet in diameter at the 

 ground, and 10 feet in diameter 200 feet 

 above the ground, showing that the 

 taper of the trunk as a whole is charm- 

 ingly fine. About 100 feet or more of 

 the trunk is usually branchless, but its 

 massive simplicity is relieved by the bark 

 furrows, which, instead of making an 

 irregular network, run evenly parallel, 

 like the flutings of an architectural 

 column, and to some extent by tufts of 

 slender spray that wave lightly in the 

 wind and cast flecks of shade, seeming 

 to have been pinned on here and there 

 for the sake of beauty only. The young 

 trees have slender, simple branches 

 down to the ground, put on with strict 

 regularity, sharply aspiring at the top, 

 horizontal about half-way down, and 

 drooping in handsome curves at the 

 base. By the time the sapling is 500 or | 



600 years old this spiry, feathery, juve- 

 nile habit merges into the firm, rounded, 

 dome form of middle age, which in turn 

 takes on the eccentric picturesqueness 

 of old age. The foliage of the saplings 

 is dark bluish-green in colour, while 

 the older trees ripen to a warm brown- 

 ish yellow. The bark is rich cinnamon- 

 brown, purplish in young trees and in 

 the shady portions of the old, while the 

 ground is covered with brown leaves and 

 burrs, forming colour masses of extra- 

 ordinary richness not to mention the 

 flowers and underbrush that rejoice 

 about them in their seasons. Walk the Se- 

 quoia woods at anytime of year and you 

 will say that they are the most beautiful 

 and majestic on earth. Beautiful and im- 

 pressive contrasts meet you everywhere ; 

 the colours of tree and flower, rock and 

 sky, light and shade,strength and frailty, 

 endurance and evanescence, tangles of 

 supple Hazel trees, tree pillars about as 

 rigid as granite domes, Roses and Vio- 

 lets, the smallest of their kind, bloom- 

 ing around the feet of the giants, and 

 rugs of the lowly Chamaebatia where the 

 sunbeams fall." 



"I never saw a Big Tree that had 

 died a natural death; barring accidents, 



they seem to be immor- 

 Age. tal, being exempt from 



all the diseases that af- 

 flict and kill other trees. Unless de- 

 stroyed by man they live on indefinitely 

 until burned, smashed by lightning, or 

 cast down by storms, or by the giving 

 way of the ground on which they stand. 

 The age of one that was felled in the 

 Calaveras Grove, for the sake of having 

 its stump for a dancing floor, was about 



