Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean: Vol. 4, Pt. 3

BOTANY.
Professor Lindley (Vegetable Kingdom, page 228) observes of this tree and tbies Douglasi,
that " they are probably the most valuable fir timbers of the whole family." And it will be
remembered, the pine tribe'stands at the head of the list of timber trees.
WELLINGTONIA GIGANTEA.
This tree is popularly known, in the district where it grows, as the "I'Mammoth Washngtom
Tree." At this time it probably possesses more interest than any other American tree. Our
backwoodsmen have known of its existence ever since the beginning of the California gold
excitement, for it grows very near a rich auriferous region, about equidistant from Sonora and
Mokelumne Hill, both of which districts are much resorted to by emigrants and gold-seekers.
The so-called Mammoth Grove is north of those places, near the head-waters of Calaveras and
Mokelumne rivers. Dr. Randall, the worthy president of the California Academy of Natural
Sciences, had his attention called to the tree several years ago, and was persuaded it possessed
characters generically distinct from the redwood, (Sequoia semnpervirens,) and sent, more than
eighteen months ago, large and beautiful specimens of this tree, besides many other rare and
new botanical specimens, to Drs. Torrey and Gray. Most unfortunately, the specimens were
lost in the transit of the isthmus. Doubly unfortunate has it happened to us as Americans,
because we have been anticipated, and prevented from giving it a proud American name, the
WASHINGTONIA. Dr. Randall and his friends, being convinced of its being the type of a new
genus, proposed to call it after our revered WASEINGTON, but not having books of reference at
hand, he sent'-specimens (which, as before stated, were lost) to Drs. Torrey and Gray, for the
purpose of having the tree described and published. In the mean time, Mr. Lobb, a seed col
lector for some society in Scotland, sent home enough to characterize the plant, which was done
by Professor Lindley, in the London Gardeners' Chronicle. However, we must now be con
tented with the possession of the tree, as England must be with the empty name. From
recent researches of Dr. Torry, I believe he is pretty well satisfied that this tree is not
generically distinct from the redwood, and has bestowed on it the name of SEQUOIA GIGANTEA.
A good generic,character of this family is contained in the staminate flowers and stamens;
and when these are procured and examined, this question can be satisfactorily settled.
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 section of it eighteen feet from the stump, it was
fourteen and a half 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 six inches, and carefully counted the rings on
that space, which numbered one hundred and thirty, making the tree 1,885 years old. Since I
came home, Dr. Torrey tells me he has actually counted every ring of a section of the tree, and
found the number a little over 1,100. This makes a great discrepancy with Professor Lindley's
account in the Gardeners' Chronicle, where it is estimated at more than 3,000 years. I believe
it is asserted in the Chronicle that it must have germinated when Moses was a little boy I
A verbal or written description of the size of this tree, however accurate, cannot give one an
adequate idea of its dimensions. It required thirty-one of my paces (of three feet each)to
measure thus rudely its circumference at the stump. The only way it could be felled was by
boring repeatedly with pump augers. It required five men twenty-two days to perform the
operation. After they had succeeded in severing it at the stump, the shoulders were so broad,
and the tree so perfectly equipoised, that it took the same five men two days in driving wedges
with a battering-ram on one side of the cut, to throw it out of its equilibrium sufficiently to
make it fall. The mere felling of the tree, at California prices for wages, cost the sum of $550.
A short distance from this tree was another of larger dimensions, which, apparently, had
been overthrown by accident some forty or fifty years ago. It was hollow for some distance,
and when I was there, quite a rivulet was running through its cavity. The trunk was three
hundred feet in length; the top broken off, and by some agency (probably fire) was destroyed.
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