SEQUOIA WELLINGTON I A. 
11 
reached a sufficient height to give the wind a hold upon its branches ; but with a coating of bark so 
thick, so tough, so stringy, so spongy, and so elastic as it possesses, it is kept in its place, and protected 
from its own fragility. It is applied, too, in the same way, and on the same principle as is adopted 
by ourselves in packing and supporting anything that is fragile ; and this support is given after the 
fashion which modern science has ascertained to furnish the greatest amount of strength with the least 
waste of substance. The bark is constructed on the plan of the corrugated roof; a network of corrugated 
layers of harder texture being placed longitudinally round the tree, while the interstices are packed with a 
soft, light, elastic, spongy padding. 
Another adaptation of structure to purpose exhibited in this tree is the gnarled expansion of its trunk 
at the base, which supports it against the wind by what may be styled a circle of buttresses. 
Looking at the enormous magnitude of this species, it was natural that a correspondingly great age 
should be ascribed to it. It is, therefore, no wonder that Dr Lindley, in describing it, allowed his 
imagination to luxuriate in the strange associations which its size and antiquity evoke. “ What a tree is 
this,” says he, “of what portentous aspect and almost fabulous antiquity! They say that the specimen 
felled at the junction of the Stanislaus and San Antonio was above 3000 years old ; that is to say, it must 
have been a little plant when Samson was slaying the Philistines, or Paris running away with Helen, or 
PEneas carrying off good Pater Anchises upon his filial shoulders.” 
But this estimate of its age is obviously taken only from the reports which first reached this country. 
It was not until the acts of vandalism, so much condemned by scientific men, had been committed, that 
these gentlemen had thereby the opportunity of ascertaining its real age. 
It does not appear from what source Dr Lindley drew the report that the tree had reached an age of 
3000 years—probably from Mr Lobb, from whom he received the rest of his information; but however 
derived, Professor Asa Gray presently shewed, by actual counting of the rings of an imperfedt sedtion 
(of Sequoia sempervirens ), that this age was probabfy much exaggerated, and that the duration of the tree 
was most likely not more than 2000 years. A perfedt sedtion, or rather semi-diameter, of Wellingtonia 
(1 1\ feet in semi-diameter, i.e., 23 feet in diameter, had the sedtion been complete) was soon afterwards 
examined by Dr Torrey, and the following were the rates of growth found by him in that tree:— 
The 1 st 
100 
layers 
occupied 
17^ inches. 
The 7th 100 layers occupied 
7 f 
inches. 
„ 2d 
yy 
<• 
yy 
yy 
14 
„ 8th „ 
yy 
yy 
11 
yy 
„ 3 d 
yy 
yy 
yy ' 
12 
„ 9th „ 
yy 
yy 
10 
yy 
„ 4th 
yy 
y y 
yy 
13 
,, 10th ,, 
yy 
yy 
11 
yy 
„ 5 th 
yy 
yy 
yy 
16! „ 
„ nth „ 
yy 
yy 
yy 
,, 6 th 
yy 
yy 
yy 
• • 8f „ 
Remaining 12 th ,, 
yy 
yy 
• 
1 
yy 
These results shewed that the tree examined was only about 1200 years old. Dr Bigelow, in his 
Botanical Report [loc. cit. supra), says, “ As considerable discussion has already been had with regard to 
the age of this tree, I may state that, when I visited it in May last, at a sedtion of it 18 feet from the 
stump, it was 14.I feet in diameter. As the diminution of the size of the annual rings of growth from the 
heart or centre to the circumference or sapwood appeared to be pretty regular, I placed my hand 
midway, roughly measuring 6 inches, and carefully counted the rings on that space, which numbered 
130, making the tree 1885 years old. Since I came home, Dr Torrey tells me he has actually counted 
every ring of a sedtion of the tree, and found the number a little over 1100.” 
Mr Blake, in the paper already referred to, says that, from a partial count at the end of one of the 
burnt trunks at the Mariposa Grove, he judged that there might be from 1800 to 2000 annual rings 
(apparently more than in the stump of the Calaveros tree). He acknowledges, however, that the oppor¬ 
tunities for determining the age of the trees is not so good at Mariposa as at the Calaveros Grove, for 
one has been there cut down, and cleanly cross-cut, on purpose to fully expose the rings. 
At the International Horticultural Meeting recently held at South Kensington (May 1866), Professor 
de Candolle gave an account of a very exadt measurement, recently made by M. De la Rue, of the trunk 
[ 20 ] f of 
