SEQUOIA
- Sequoia, Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 197 (1847); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. Pl. iii. 429 (1880); Masters, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxx. 22 (1892).
- Wellingtonia, Lindley, Gard. Chron. 1853, p. 823.
- Washingtonia, Winslow, Calif. Farmer, 1854, ex Hooker, Kew Journ. vii. 29 (1855).
- Gigantabies, Nelson (Senilis), Pinaceæ, 77 (1886).
- Athrotaxis, Baillon, Hist. Pl. xii. 39 (1892).
- Steinhauera, Kuntze, Lexic. Gen. Phan. 533 (1904).
Tall evergreen trees, belonging to the tribe Taxodineæ of the order Coniferæ. Bark thick, of two layers, the outer thick, spongy and fibrous, the inner thin, close, and firm. Branches short and stout; lateral branchlets slender, terete, and deciduous. Buds and leaves different in the two species, the leaves having an undivided fibro-vascular bundle, with a single resin canal beneath it.
Flowers monœcious, solitary, minute, appearing in early spring from buds formed in the previous autumn. Male flowers terminal or in the axils of the uppermost leaves, surrounded at the base by imbricated, ovate, acute, apiculate, involucral bracts; stamens numerous, spirally arranged on an axis; filaments short, dilated into ovate incurved sub-peltate connectives, which bear on their inner surface two to five (usually three) pendulous globose two-valved anther-cells, opening below on the back; pollen simple. Female flowers terminal, the leaves gradually passing into the bracts, which are numerous, spirally imbricated, ovate, keeled on the back, acuminate with either long or short points, and adnate to short thick rounded ovuliferous scales which bear five to seven ovules, at first erect, ultimately becoming inverted.
Cones pendulous, persistent after the fall of the seeds. Scales, formed by the enlargement of the united bracts and ovuliferous scales of the flowers, woody, with deciduous resin-glands, spirally arranged, wedge-shaped at the base, widening at the apex into oblong wrinkled discs, showing a transverse median depression, sometimes tipped by a small spine. Seeds, 5 to 7 under each scale, pendulous, oblong-ovate, compressed, with two lateral wings. Seedlings with four to six cotyledons; primary leaves linear-lanceolate, short-pointed, thin, spreading.
Several fossil species of Sequoia are known, occurring earliest in the Cretaceous period in the holarctic region, becoming very widely spread over Europe, Northern Asia, and North America in Tertiary times. Two living species, inhabiting California, are distinguished.
1. Sequoia sempervirens, Endlicher. Coast range of California, and crossing
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