PINETUM DANICUM. 



309 



growth was generally more or less killed by frost in the winter. 

 There is reason to believe that this species will not thrive there. 



At Balestrand great farm gardens (61° 15') there was planted 

 in the spring of 1876 a Wellingtonia of about 1 foot high. In the 

 hard winter of 1880-81 the top shoot was killed, but afterwards a 

 new one sprang up. In September 1885 the tree had a height of 

 17 feet 10 inches. 



In Southern Sweden the Wellingtonia seems to do well, but it is 

 perhaps not to be found farther north than Gothenburg (57° 42'). 



S. sempervirens, Endl. Conif. 178. Taxodinm sempermrens, 

 Lamb. Pin. ed. 2, 120, t. 64. T. nutkaense, Lamb. Herb. Schuhertia 

 sempervirens, Spach, Hist, des Veg. Phan. xi. 353. Sequoia gigantea, 

 Endl. Conif. 198. 



Habitat. — California, from the northern boundary of the State, 

 south through the coast ranges to Veer's Creek, near the southern 

 border of Monterey County. 



A large tree of great economic value, 200-300 feet in height, with 

 a trunk 8--23 feet in diameter, sending up from the stump when cut 

 many vigorous shoots ; sides of canons and gulches in low, wet 

 situations, borders of streams, &c. , not appearing on dry hillsides ; 

 generally confined to the western slopes of the coast ranges, and 

 nowhere extending far from the coast ; most generally multiplied and 

 reaching its greatest average density north of Cape Mendocino (C. S. 

 Sargent, " Forest Trees of North America"). 



The Redwood 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 nsime oi 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 Poyal Horticultural Society, 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 Russians in 1843, or three years earlier 

 than the receipt of Hartweg's consignment. 



Douglas makes the following remark, in a letter published in 

 Hooker's " Companion to the Botanical Magazine," ii. 150 : " But the 

 great beauty of Californian vegetation is a species of Taxodium, which 

 gives the mountains a most peculiar, I was almost going to say awful, 

 appearance, something which plainly tells us we are not in Europe. 

 I have repeatedly measured specimens of this tree 270 feet long, and 

 52 feet round at 5 feet above the ground. Some few I saw upwards 

 of 300 feet high, but none in which the thickness was greater than those 

 I have instanced. " This passage led to the belief that the Wellingtonia 



