Sequoia gigantea — St. John and Krauss 
and certainly did not apply to the big tree. 
The first use of the name Abies religiosa (H. 
B.K.) Schlecht. & Cham. {Linnaea 5: 77, 
1830) was based upon Pinus religiosa H.B.K. 
{Nov. Gen & Sp. 2: 5, 1817). This tree, still 
accepted as Abies religiosa, is native to the 
highlands of Mexico at from 1,200 to 3,450 
meters altitude, from Durango and the Valley 
of Mexico south to Guatemala. It was named 
religiosa because of the traditional use of its 
branches to decorate the churches of its re- 
gion. Obviously, the usage by Hooker and 
Arnott was a misapplication of the name 
Abies religiosa, the true usage of which is for 
a true hr tree, or "'oyamel” of the Mexicans, 
a tree native to the mountains of Mexico and 
Guatemala. 
The third synonym listed in the publication 
of Sequoia gigantea Endl. was ''Taxodium sem- 
pervirens Hook et Arnott ad Beechey 392. 
Hooker Ic. t. 379.’’ Paxodium sempervirens 
sensu Hook. & Arn. was printed in The Botany 
of Captain Beechey s Voyage, p. 392, 1840, and 
was merely a later usage of T. sempervirens 
D. Don in Lamb., the basonym of Sequoia 
sempervirens (D. Don in Lamb.) Endl., the 
accepted name for the redwood. Though we 
are dealing with a later usage of a previously 
published and valid name, we should examine 
the basis of the usage by Hooker and Arnott 
in 1840. Their publication was as follows: 
1. Paxodtum sempervirens Lamb. Pin. t. 643? Hook. 
Ic. PI. ined. -Abies religiosa. supr. p. 184 (an Cham, et 
Schlect?) 
Of this we have seen no flowers nor fruit, and the 
leaves are nearly twice the length of those figured in 
Mr Lambert’s work, shining on the upper side as in 
Podocarpus, and glaucous underneath. The tips of the 
branches exhibit buds formed of imbricated mem- 
branaceous concave shining scales, which resemble the 
scales at the base of the galbule in Lambert’s descrip- 
tion and figure quoted. Our plant is obviously what 
Douglas alludes to in his Journal (Comp. Bot. Mag. 
vol. II. p. 150.) in the following words: — "But the 
great beauty of the Californian vegetation is a species 
of Taxodium, which gives the mountains a most pecu- 
liar, I was almost going to say awful, appearance, — 
something which plainly tells that we are not in Europe. 
I have never seen the Taxodium Nootkatense of Nee, 
except some specimens in the Lambertian herbarium, 
and have no work to refer to; but from recollection, I 
should say that the present species is distinct from it. 
349 
I have repeatedly measured specimens of this tree 270 
feet long, and 32 feet round at three 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.’’ 
Taxodium sempervirens sensu Hook, et Ar- 
nott rested on four elements: 
1. The name, and a reference to T. semper- 
virens Lamb., the basonym of Sequoia semper- 
virens, the redwood. 
2. A reference to a plate prepared for 
Hooker’s leones, but then unpublished. This 
later appeared in volume 4: t. 379, 1841. It 
represented a sterile branch, collected by Lay 
and Collie in California, now identified as 
Abies bracteata (D. Don in Lamb.) Nutt. 
(1849), according to Rehder (1949: 647). The 
Latin diagnosis, a line and a third in length, 
given for Sequoia gigantea Endl., "foliis linear- 
ibus iV/i-f') acutis subtus glauco pulver- 
ulentis, ’ ’ bears no resemblance to the characters 
of the big tree or to the small, bright yellow- 
green foliage of the redwood. It is apparent 
that Endlicher took these characters from the 
passage by Hooker and Arnott in The Botany 
of Captain Beechey s Voyage, where they wrote, 
"... the leaves are nearly twice the length of 
those figured in Mr Lambert’s work, shining 
on the upper side as^ in Podocarpus, and glau- 
cous underneath.’’ Then, the diagnosis given 
by Hooker for Sequoia gigantea applied to 
Abies bracteata. 
3. A reference to Abies religiosa sensu Hook, 
et Arnott, and doubtfully sensu Cham. & 
Schlecht. Our discussion just above points 
out that Abies religiosa (H.B.K.) Cham. & 
Schlecht. is a true fir tree, native of Central 
America. The sterile branch collected by Lay 
and Collie in California, indentified by Hook- 
er and Arnott as A. religiosa, is now con- 
sidered to represent a misidentified specimen 
of Abies bracteata Nutt. 
4. A duplicated reference to Taxodium spe- 
cies of Douglas, which will be discussed 
below. 
Now, reverting to the major elements of 
Sequoia gigantea Endl., the description, local- 
