310 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



was first seen by Douglas in his Californian explorations ; but this is 

 now known to be a mistake. Mr. William Lobb has shown, from the 

 route followed by Douglas, which is perfectly well known, that he 

 never came within 120 miles of any of the habitats of this tree. What 

 he saw was Sequoia sempervirens, as may be otherwise inferred from 

 the terms in which he speaks of it ("Pinetum Britannicum "). 



Owing to the accessibility of the Redwood forests, due to their 

 proximity to the coast, and to their being traversed by innumerable 

 streams, the consumption of Redwood timber is proceeding at a rate 

 that would almost exceed belief were it not attested by reliable statistical 

 facts. Sawmills and logging camps are established along the coast, 

 where the immense trunks are reduced to useful timber with a 

 prodigious waste of wood. More destructive still are the operations 

 of the sheep farmer, who fires the herbage to improve the grazing, and 

 whose flocks of tens of thousands of sheep devour every green thing 

 more efi'ectively than the locust. 



During the last quarter of a century the Anglo-Saxon has been 

 ruthlessly carrying fire and the saw into the forests of California, 

 destroying what he could not use, and sparing neither young nor old, 

 and before a century is out the two Sequoias may be known only as 

 herbarium specimens and garden ornaments ; indeed, with regard to 

 the " Big Trees," the noblest of the noble coniferous trees, the 

 present generation, which has actually witnessed its discovery, may 

 live to say of it that "The place thereof will know it no more " (Sir 

 J. D. Hooker, "Address to the Members of the Royal Institution," 

 April 1878). 



Sequoia sempermrens is still somewhat rare in the gardens of 

 Denmark. A plant measured in 1882 at Fuglsang was reported to 

 have attained a height of 10 or 11 feet. At the gardens of the brewery, 

 Carlsberg, near Copenhagen, I have seen a somewhat smaller plant 

 which produced cones. It is covered with Spruce branches every 

 winter. The young plants of the Redwood seen in other gardens often 

 sufi'er from frost on the young growth. Near the coast the plant 

 seems to prosper best. 



S. s. adpressa, Carr. Tr. Gen. Conif. ed. 2, 211. S. s. alho spicxi 

 or spicata, hort. S. pyramidata, hort. Taxodium sempervirens alho 

 spica, hort. This variety seems to be more tender than the type. 



15. ATHROTAXIS.— Don in Linn. Trans, xviii. 171 ; Hook. 

 Icon. t. 559, 573, 574 ; Hook. fil. in Lond. Journ. of Bot. iv. 148 ; Endl. 

 Conif. 193 ; Carr. Tr. Gen. Conif. 158 ; Gord. Pin. 29 ; Henk. and 

 Hochst. Nadelh. 219. Cunninghamia sp. Zucc. in Sieb. Fl. Jap. 

 ii. 9 ; Brongn. Diet. Univ. d'Hist. Nat. iv. 464 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. 

 vi. 241 ; Eichl. in Engl, and Prantl. Natlirl. Pflf. ii. s. 89. 



Flowers monoecious, solitary, terminal, and separate ; sometimes 

 the difi"erent sexes are found entirely occupying distinct plants. 



