REDWOOD OF CALIFORNIA, the great cypress-like forest tree (Sequoia .cemper virens) of the Pacific Coast. It is of the same genus with the big trees (S. gigantea), botani cally described under SEQUOIA ; the latter occurs in scattered groups on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, while the redwood forms dense forests on the west slopes of the Coast Range, where it forms the most important timber re source of the State. The forests were thor oughly studied by the government bureau of forestry in 1902, whose report furnishes the fol lowing facts: The redwood is popularly thought to occupy a strip of country 10 to 30 miles wide, from the Oregon line to the Bay of Monterey, but these boundaries do not cover its actual distribution. Two thousand acres of redwood exist in Oregon along the Chetco River. South of the Chetco a continuous redwood belt begins, and increases its width from 10 miles, at Del Norte County, to 18 or 20 miles, and keeps on unbroken to southern Humboldt County. Here is a break, but in Mendocino County the belt be comes dense again, and widens out to 35 miles. South of that county the tree grows in isolated patches as far south as the Santa Lucia Moun tains.
The climate and topography that have brought about this limited distribution of the redwood deserve attention. North and south along the coast, in nearly parallel ridges, lie the mountains of die Coast Range, steep and rising to altitudes of 1,000 to 2,000 feet. A few large rivers and many smaller streams cut through them to enter the sea, and along their courses in places are broad bottom lands and gentle slopes. West of the Coast Range the climate is even and moderate, with a range from just below freezing to 80° F., and a yearly average of from 50° to 60°. Snow lies on the tops of only the highest ridges. Thirty to 60 inches of rain falls in the autumn and winter, and in the summer sea fog bathes the coast. But east of the mountains, less than 50 miles from the sea, be hot interior valleys, never visited by the fog, i parched and rainless in the summer, and wet only occasionally by the winter rains — condi tions too unfavorable to permit the growth of the redwood. The forest may be considered in
two types — the 'slope* and the Mats The common type is the 'slopes—that is, the growth on the steep sides of the Coast Range, which is a mixture of redwood, red fir, tanbark oak and white fir, with an occasional madrofia or hem lock. As the slopes become moderate, the alti tude lower, the soil deeper and the water sup Ply better, the redwood steadily gains on the other kinds and the forest becomes denser, until on the rich flats and in the gulches the second type is developed; on the best redwood Mats* no other tree grows.
The redwood grows to a greater height than anY other American tree, but in girth and in Age it is exceeded by the big trees of the Sierras. On the slopes 225 feet is about the maximum height and 10 feet its greatest diam eter, while on the flats, under better conditions, it grows to be 350 feet high, with a diameter of 20 feet, and occasional giants exceed this. Most of the redwoods cut are from 400 to 800 years old. After the tree has passed the age of 500 years it usually begins to die down from the top and to fall off in growth. The oldest tree scientifically examined began life 531 A. D. The tree, when normal, has a straight, slightly tapered bole, clear for more than 100 feet, and a crown of horizontal branches that may oc cupy from a third to a half of its total length. The roots strike downward at a sharp angle, and are so large and so numerous as to form a compact mass of wood, in shape like an in verted funnel. The bark of the tree offers such a remarkable resistance to fire that except under great heat it is not combustible. It is of a reddish-gray color, fibrous in texture, and gives to full-grown trees a fluted appearance. The tree, however, assumes many shapes.
The redwood requires little of the soil ex cept that it be moist, and those trees in a gully or along a creek are larger than their neighbors on the ridges. It is, however, so dependent on moisture of the air that this factor mainly or wholly determines its distribution, and the east ern limits of the forests are determined by the distance inland to which the sea fogs may drift.