Morning journal and courier., 1883-12-06
Price Three Cents

this thought. Furthermore he has no theory to offer as to the cause of the singular habit of the tree, which is as inexplicable to him as to others. After having so expressed himself to us in an interview with him in Sheffield Hall 8 change of topic ensued, when he took down from Q shelf what looked like fishline wound around piece of wood. With 1t in hand he accompanied us to the front door of the hall, and standing at the top of the steps put into our hand the loose end of the string, whereupon we passed down the steps and out at the gate, say twen- ty feet or more, and entirely across Grove street to the center of the line-of the oppo- site pavement ere the string was entirely un- wound, when just 104 feet separated us That was the exact distance around one of the giants of the giant trees of California, and we held in our hands the identical string that the professor had some years since wound around it's body and measured it. This gentleman from 1860 to 1864 was the State botanist of California and is familiar with Its flora. The "Sequoia," (the botani. cal name of the giant trees of California; he states, in the tertiary period extended over a large part of the world, even to the Arctic regions. There are several fossil species of the genus sequoia. The miocene tertiary of Greenland in 70 north latitude furnishes one The tallsst of the sequois is the Keystone State In the Oalaveras grove, which is tho tallest tree as yet measured on the continent. Its height is 325 feet. The vane of our Gen. ter church is 193 feet in height. The s'Euca- lTptGE amygdalinR" of Australia exceeds tho Sequoia in height, many reaching, as meas ured by Dr. Muller the eminent government botanist, over 400 feet. One indeed reaches the enormous elevation of 4So feet. In girth the Australian trees are far less than those of California. One of the largest trees of the Calaveras grove, California, was cut down for the purpose of ascertaining it's age, and 1t IS said occupied five men twenty-two days. It was found to be in round numbers 1,3Oo years old. This is exceeded by some of the English yews. Seeds of the Sequoia in millions have been scattered over the world and planted. They germinate readily and flourish with peculiar luxuriance in Great Britain, and in numerous instances have grown over two feet in height in sim gle year.
 The genus Sequoia was named in honor of Sequoia, or Sequoyah, whose history Profes- sor Brewer has carefully investigated, and it is quite interesting. 'tHe was a Cherokee of mixed white and Indian blood, better known by his English name, George Guess, who is supposed to have been born about 177o. and who lived in Hills Valley, in the northeastern corner of Alabama, with his tribe. He be- came known to the world by his invention of an alphabet and written language for the Cherokees. This alphabet, which was con- structed with wonderful ingenuity, consisted of eighty characters. each representing duh II AdU dlESduy COu26 Into use to a considerable extent before the whites had heard anything of it. After time the mis. sionaries had taken up Sequoyah's idea and had types cast and printing press supplied to the Cherokee nation, and a newspaper was started in 1928, partly in this character Driven with the rest of his tribe beyond the Mississippi, he died in New Mexico in 1s4s. His remarkable alphabet is still in use, al- though destined to pass away with his ns- tion, but not into oblivion, for his name, at tached to one of the grandest and most inn pressivs productions of the vegetable king dom, will forever keep his memory green.
 There is species of the ''Sequoia' popu- larly known as the Redwood, which singly is not equal to the big trees of the Calaveras and Maripcsa groves. But the forests them selves, from their height, density and extent, gre among the most impressive places on the face of the earth. They are generally near the seacoast and are vast in extent. Imagine yourself in forest of evergreens of leagues in extent, every tree in Rirth from fifteen to thirty feet and running up one hundred feet or more like the mRsts of ship, straight and naked, and then sending out branches for one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet more, dark, heavy, sombre foliage and so very dense as to entirely exclude any view of the sky, and you can have some faint idea of these magnificent forests. ''What a thought was that" said Ruskin, stwhen God thought of tree :" And what thought is that of his power and majesty as one stands enveloped in the midst of these gigantic creations. Their solemn grandeur and awful sublimity no words can describe