24 
BOTANY. 
north as 38° 45' north latitude, and saw gigantic trees, whence it is inferred he must have seen 
them both. But I have been assured by Dr. Randall, who was well acquainted with Douglas’ 
botanizing localities, that he never penetrated inland while in California, much less that he 
visited the mountains of the Sierra Nevada; and, consequently, he could not have encountered 
the mammoth Washington tree. 
Little has been written of the valuable qualities of the redwood for timber, it having come 
into general use but for a comparatively short time—that is, since the settlement of California 
by Americans. The wood resembles the cedar a good deal in lightness and susceptibility of 
polish, but it is of a slightly darker shade of red. In the rural districts, along the coast, 
farmers use it for making fencing rails ; and it is almost certain to excite incredulity, to state the 
number of rails that can be made from a single tree. They are counted by thousands, as we 
count them by hundreds in the eastern States. For building purposes and cabinet work, it pro¬ 
bably excels every other tree in California. In the cities and towns, where its transportation 
can be afforded, it takes the place of every other wood. Oregon lumber is frequently brought 
into the San Francisco market at a cheaper rate than it can be brought from the surrounding 
hills, only a few miles distant. The foliage of this tree is dimorphous, as in most of the cypress 
tribe ; tbe younger and more thrifty branches having a two-ranked dilated lamina, as in the 
spruce, while the older ones assume the scale-like foliage of the cedar. I collected the old cones 
of last year’s growth, but fear I failed to procure the seeds, all having already been shed. 
Libocedrus decurrens. — White Cedar. 
This tree, in California, is called “ white cedar,” but it is quite different from the tree of the 
same name in the eastern States. I presume it is so called from its having somewhat of a resem¬ 
blance, in foliage and habit, to the American arbor vitas. Tbe fruit-cone, and the arrangement 
of the leaves, however, are quite different, and justify the botanist in separating it from the genus 
Thuya , to which it is closely allied. The excellent representation given by Dr. Torrey, in 
Plantee Fremontiame, (Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge,) Plate 3, pp. 7 and 8, is correct, 
excepting that the fruit-cones are represented as being erect, whereas they are pendulous. This 
error probably resulted from the drawing having been made from dried specimens, rather than 
from nature. The tree is only to be found at an elevation of some four or five thousand feet 
above the level of the sea, in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. I found it fifteen or 
twenty miles southeast of Sonora, on the head-waters of the Stanislaus and Tuolumne rivers, 
(both of which are considerable affluents of the San Joaquin,) south of 38° north latitude; and 
also on the head-waters of the Calaveras and Mokelumne rivers, in juxtaposition with the Wash- 
ingtonia. Dr. Torrey remarks, that it ranges as high as 41° on the head-waters of the Sacra¬ 
mento river. In company with the Washingtonia, it appeared nearly as tall as that tree. It 
certainly attains a height of over two hundred feet. The timber is much sought for by farmers 
in that region for making rails and fencing-timber, as it is considered superior in durability to 
the other species of pine in the neighborhood. The wood is very light, of a dirty yellowish 
hue, and is thought to be more durable than redwood. 
Torreya californica. —Nutmeg tree of California. 1 
I found this interesting tree not very far from the coast, near Tomales bay, in a deep ravine, 
called “ the Redwoods.” I am told that it grows also on the American fork of the Sacramento 
river. I yvas anxious to obtain the one from the latter locality, in order to determine whether 
it might not be a different species from that which grows near the coast, as the plants of the 
coast and Sierra Nevada mountain seldom intermingle. It has a foliage very similar to the 
spruce, but the fruit is very characteristic and different in appearance from any of the family in 
See a description of this tree by Dr. Torrey, in the New York Journal of Pharmacy, Vol. 2. It has since been described 
by Sir William Hooker, in the Botanical Magazine, under the name of Torreya Myristica. 
