Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol03B.djvu/416

690 the influence of the sea fogs. A large portion of the area, originally covered by the tree, has of late years been destroyed by fires and by felling for lumber. In ancient times the redwood grew considerably to the southward of its present limit, as is proved by logs being found by well-borers in various parts of the coast range, where it does not now exist, as far south as Los Angeles and San Diego.

In Oregon there are only about 2000 acres of redwood, in two small forests, on the Chetco river, six miles from its mouth, and on the Winchuck river. The redwood belt, properly so called, which is a continuous forest of the species, begins on the northern boundary of California, and ends in Mendocino county, where it attains its maximum width, about thirty-five miles. Farther north the belt narrows, being only ten miles broad in Del Norte county. South of Mendocino county the redwood is only met with in small isolated forests.

In Monterey county’ the groves are small, the most southerly forest of any importance being in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where the tree is common. The State of California appropriated in 1901 $250,000 for the purchase of the redwood forest of the Big Basin in Santa Cruz county, and this is now known as the California Redwood Park.’ Prof. Jepson tells me that the area of the park is about 3800 acres, 2500 acres of which are covered with timber, consisting of Redwood mixed with Tan Oak, Madrojfia, and Douglas Fir. A fine grove, known as the Santa Cruz “Big Trees,” is famous. A small grove, now practically destroyed, existed fifty years ago on the east side of the bay of San Francisco in Alameda county. At present the tree grows in the Mount Diabolo range in only one limited locality, Redwood Peak, in the Oakland Hills, directly opposite the Golden Gate. In Napa valley the tree is rather common ; and crossing over the summit of Howell Mountain it descends the slope towards Pope valley. This is the point where the redwood grows farthest from the ocean, and the only locality where it is found to the east of the divide of the coast range. In Marin county there are only a few isolated groves, mainly used as picnic grounds; and in Sonoma county a few scattered claims still remain uncut.

The redwood belt, which I visited in 1906, near its northern limit at Crescent City, is the most impressive of all forests, being remarkable not only for the immense size * of the trees, but also for their extraordinary density upon the ground. A single acre has yielded 100,000 cubic feet of merchantable timber. The favourable conditions of the soil and climate account in great measure for this extreme pro- ductiveness; but I am inclined to think that the mode of reproduction by suckers and by coppice shoots, explains in part the density with which the trunks stand upon the ground. A large proportion of the old trees are sprouts from ancient

1 Cf. Jepson, Flora W. Mid. California, 24 (1901); and C.H. Shinn, Cycl. Am. Hort. iv. 1660 (1902).

2 Prof. Jepson in a recent letter says that there is practically no Redwood in the National Forest Reserves; but a few groves in private hands are as safe as if under State or National control, namely :—Redwood Cañon by Mount Tamalpais near San Francisco ; Bohemian Club Grove in Sonoma county ; and Armstrong Grove in the same county. These eomprise 500 to 1000 acres each.

8 Mr. J.H. Maiden, Director of the Sydney Botanic Garden, in an article in the Sydney Morning Heral quoted in the London Pharmaceutical Journal, April 30, 1904, states that the excessive heights claimed for eucalyptus trees in Australia are unreliable, and considers that the redwood, accurately measured by Sargent as 340 feet, is the tallest tree in the world. Von Mueller, in Eucalyptographia, Decade 5 (1879–1884), gives, on the authority of Mr. D. Boyle, the measurement of a fallen Eucalyptus amygdalina as 420 feet, and states that Mr. G. Robinson, a competent surveyor. measured another tree of this species as 471 feet; and it is unknown to me on what grounds Mr. Maiden has questioned these measurements.