trees, as is readily seen by the way in which one-sided stems are often grouped around a hollow, from which the old stump has rotted away. At the present day reproduction is mainly effected by suckers, the proportion of these to seedlings being as 100 to 1. Seeds do not germinate except in open places, and young seedlings, requiring plenty of light to grow, are usually suppressed by the shade of the suckers, which, being well nourished by the roots of the parent tree, grow fast in dense shade.
The habit of the tree perpetuating itself by suckers seems to have impaired the vitality of the seed, as only 15 to 25 per cent of it proved fertile in experiments made by Mr. P. Rock of Golden Gate Park.
The topography of the redwood belt is uneven, and the character of the forest in consequence is very varied. The mountains of the coast range rise to altitudes of 1000 to 2000 feet, and consist of two or three ridges parallel to the coast, through which rivers and streams have cut deep valleys in some places, and formed wide alluvial flats in others. On the steep slopes and at the higher elevations, where the soil is shallow and dry, the redwood is always mixed with Douglas, hemlock, Adzes grandis, and two or three other species, and is comparatively small in size and less dense upon the ground. It is only at low altitudes, in the deep soil of alluvial flats and in ravines, where the water-supply is great, that the redwood grows as practically pure forest, and attains a great size and density; but even here a few trees of Sitka spruce and hemlock are usually associated with it. Absolutely pure stands, however, occur on flat tracts near streams, and in these the shade is so great that nothing grows upon the ground but Oxalis and a few tufts of Aspidium munitum. I saw a stand of this kind close to the Smith River, where the trees were of enormous size and of incredible density upon the ground. One tree measured 51 feet in girth. The river bank was fringed with Alnus oregona 50 to 60 feet high, behind which were two or three rows of taller Umbellularia; and a single Lawson cypress, 200 feet high, had taken refuge on the river bank. Behind this screen there were only redwoods towering far above the other trees. On the slopes the ground cover was dense and impenetrable, consisting mainly of Aspidium attaining an immense size, Acer circinatum, Rhamnus Purshiana, Gaultheria Shallon, Rubus, etc. According to R.T. Fisher, of the U.S. Forestry Service, of whose paper’ I have made use in this account, the redwood slopes, where the tree is mixed in varying proportions, cover fifty times as large an area as the redwood flats, where the tree is pure or nearly so.
Near Crescent City the flat which extends for about three miles in width from the ocean to the first hill of the coast range was originally covered with a mixture of redwood, Sitka spruce, and hemlock, most of which is now cut away. On the bluffs of the sea-shore a few small trees of Pinus contorta take refuge, while behind them and inland there are scattered groves of second-growth spruce, about 50 feet high. The first slope, exposed to the south-west and rising to 500 feet, is a dense stand of virgin spruce and hemlock, the trees attaining 200 feet high by 15 feet in girth. Crossing the hill to the north-east slope the first redwoods are seen, and from here inland for about eight miles over rolling country the redwood is the dominant tree, enormous in size and thick upon the ground. Afterwards, ascending the gorge of
1 "The Redwood”: U.S. Forestry Bulletin, No. 38 (1903).
