SEQUOIA WELLINGTON I A. 
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Fig. 22. 
Scale of mature'Cone. 
Fig- 23. 
Section of Cone. 
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attached, not at the base but towards the top, by the margin of the wing, in the same way as they are in 
the Dammara, and in Cunninghamia sinensis , and Sciadopitys verticillata. Cotyledons, germinal leaves, 
3 to 7, generally 4 [fig. 26 a and 263 ], thick, rounded above, 
somewhat glaucous, almost flat, reddish below, the colour 
blending with that of the bark. The primordial leaves linear, 
alternate, subcylindric, glaucescent, and termin¬ 
ated by a small mucronated point. The young 
plants, on pushing their way out of the earth, 
have their young bark of brick red or violace¬ 
ous colour, which they preserve for the first year. 
Dr Bigelow [loc. cit. ) says, “ I observed a remarkable peculiarity with regard to their 
fruit cones; namely, that they were in every state of development, from the germ to the ripe 
fruit. I was near them about the middle of May, when the ground was literally covered 
with their cones and seeds.” Mr Clark (who appears to be a resident in the valley of the 
south fork of the Merced River, not far from the Mariposa Grove, and who is said by Mr 
Blake (loc. cit. ) to be very familiar with the trees, and to have colledted their seeds) observed 
that the cones require two years to mature or yield seeds that will germinate ; and we find 
the same to be the case in this country. 
The proper designation of this tree has given rise to much discussion. It was first 
described by Dr Lindley ; and the name given by him (Wellingtonia gigantea ) 
should, by the rules of priority, if there were no intrinsic objections to it, have 
precedence over all others. Objections, however, have been taken to it, both on 
scientific and general grounds. 
On the former, exception has been taken to the generic denomination, first by 
Professor Asa Gray, and Professor Decaisne, and latterly by most botanists, that the 
tree is only a second species of Sequoia , and, consequently, that a new generic 
name ( Wellingtonia ) was uncalled for. 
The following were the reasons given by Dr Lindley, in his original description of the tree (“ Gar¬ 
deners’ Chronicle,” 1853, p. 823), for separating it as a genus from Sequoia. 
Fig. 24. 
Core of Scale. 
Fill 
25 < 7 . 
Fig. 2 3 b. 
“ Let us now,” says he, “ endeavour to shew upon what technical grounds we conceive that the genus Wellingtonia is satisfactorily estab¬ 
lished. Wellingtonia is a tree with the imbricated scale-like leaves of some Junipers attached to the branch by a broad base; and when, as 
happens in the more vigorous shoots, the leaves acquire unusual development, they still are sessile bodies, with a triangular sedition, and no ten¬ 
dency whatever to form a flat lamina. But they are alternate, not opposite.” [No, only so on a cursory inspection ; they are in reality disposed 
spirally], “ In Sequoia and Sciadopitys , genera also having alternate leaves” [some misapprehension here — Sciadopitys has them verticillate ; and 
in Seqitoia, although generally distichously spread out like those of the Silver Firs, they are in reality spirally disposed too], “the leaves acquire 
the expansion of a Taxus or a Podocarp. 
“ The cones are like those of Sciadopitys in size and form ; but the bradts, instead of being half-free, are so completely consolidated with the 
strobilar scales as to form but one body, the double nature of which is only discoverable by a transverse furrow along the middle of the truncated 
terminations, by a mucro, evidently belonging to a bradt, situate in the centre of the furrow, and by the double plate of woody matter, of which 
each scale is found to consist when divided longitudinally. In this respeCt, indeed, Wellingtonia corresponds with Sequoia; but the strobilar scales 
in the latter are few, unguiculate” [not more so than in Wellingtonia], “almost peltate” [only so if dried when immature], “ and attached slightly 
to a weak axis ” [only when immature, and on weak plants]; “ whereas in Wellingtonia the scales are mere wedges, whose double woody interior 
communicates with an axis so hard and stout that a sharp chisel and a forcible blow are necessary to separate them.” [The cones of Wellingtoma 
are certainly, when full grown, larger and stronger than those of Sequoia sempervPens , but they differ in nothing but size, and consequent greater 
firmness.] 
“ The seeds of Wellingtonia correspond with Zuccarini’s figure and description of those of Sciadopitys , both in form, number, and place of 
insertion upon the scales. Sequoia is different, having seeds far less thin, with a corky rather than a membraneous wing, fewer in number, and 
originating just within the edge of the unguiculate scales.” [We fail to see any distinction between the two on the points here noticed by Dr 
Lindley.] 
“ These considerations seem to leave no room for doubt that Wellingtonia is an entirely new coniferous form ; and possibly, when its male 
flowers shall have been seen, still further distinguished by the structure of these parts.” 
In reply to these arguments, Decaisne maintained that two forms of foliage occur in a more or less 
[ 20 ] b marked 
