BOTANY. 
23 
At the distance of three hundred feet from the hutt the trunk was forty feet in circumfer¬ 
ence, or more than twelve feet in diameter. Fragments of the same kind of tree, which had 
apparently been exposed to the vicissitudes of climate and weather the same length of time, 
and supposed to he from the individual tree that lies prostrate, are to he found projected in a 
line with the main body, one hundred and fifty feet from the top ; proving to a degree of moral 
certainty that the tree, when standing alive, must have attained the height of four hundred and 
fifty or five hundred feet! ! At the hutt it is one hundred and ten feet in circumference, or 
about thirty-six feet in diameter. On the hark, quite a soil had accumulated, on which con¬ 
siderable-sized shrubs were growing. Of these I collected specimens of currants and goose¬ 
berries on its body, from hushes elevated twenty-two feet from the ground. 
The mammoth trees are situated in a dense forest of sugar and yellow pines, balsam fir, white 
cedar, ( Libocedrus decurrens, which, in its foliage, much resembles the American arbor vita3,) 
and a little yew, supposed to be Taxus canadensis. Although it does not greatly exceed some 
of these in height, yet its stately and majestic bearing strikes the beholder with awe and wonder, 
and one almost involuntarily bows to it as the king of the forest. The bark is of a dull brown 
color, varying much in thickness, sometimes being fifteen inches or more. The whole number 
of these trees in existence, young and old, does not exceed five hundred, and all are comprised 
within an area of about fifty acres. Only eighty or ninety of them are of a gigantic size. Their 
extremely limited locality and number forcibly impressed me with the belief that the species is 
soon to become extinct, as is further evinced by its slow reproduction. Indeed these giants of 
the forest are so marked in their rusty habit from their present associates, that we can hardly 
view them in their present relations, except as links connecting us with ages so long past, that 
they seem but reminiscences of an eternal bygone. They seem to require but the process of 
petrifaction to establish a complete palaeontological era. If Professor Lindley’s estimate of its 
age be correct, one tree only is propagated in six years ; or, if Dr. Torrey be correct, one only 
in two years. A remarkable peculiarity I observed with regard to their fruit cones, namely, 
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 seed. 
The leaves are triangular and scale-like, as in the cedars, but never dimorphous or expanded 
into flat lamina, like many others of the same tribe of Cupressinaa, as Dr. Gray supposed 
might be the case. The wood is deep red, much resembling that of the celebrated redwood of 
the Coast mountains, so that the two trees were confounded for a long time. The value of the 
wood for timber is a matter of speculation merely, as it is too limited in quantity and locality 
to excite much interest, except, indeed, to wrest it from its apparent doom by cultivating it in 
plantations. Such an experiment with so noble a tree would surely be worthy an assiduous 
and laborious trial. 
Sequoia semper'virens. — Bedivood. 
This, which was long known as the Taxodium sempervirens of Don, is a noble and splendid 
ree. It is found along the Coast mountains of California, from near the region of Monterey 
to Russian river, above the bay of Bodega ; but, whether those are its extreme limits, I am 
unable to learn. It does not reach into the interior of the State, and is never found at any con¬ 
siderable distance from the Coast range of mountains. In the neighborhood of San Francisco, 
amid the deep mountain gorges, I have measured fallen trees eleven feet in diameter, and paced 
their length two hundred feet; and I have seen others standing which appeared very much taller, 
but I had not the time, nor the means at hand, to measure them. I have been told, however, 
by men of credibility, that they grow from one hundred and eighty to three hundred feet high. 
It has been but lately separated from the genus Taxodium. The gifted, but unfortunate Doug¬ 
las, was among the first to notice the peculiar gigantic forms of these trees of California, and 
from this fact many English botanists ascribe to him the credit of discovering the still more 
gigantic Washingtonia. Another reason assigned for this opinion is, that he penetrated as far 
