olfactory nerve (more strictly the olfactory tract), of which it is an enlargement, and the development of the bulb bears direct relation to the acuteness of smell. In some animals, in which smell is very acute, the bulb is of such size that it is called the olfactory lobe. In man the impressions of this sense often need to be confirmed through other senses. Odors, to be recognized, must be presented in a gaseous or vaporous form. Dryness of the mucous membrane of the nose and excessive secretion blunt the sense of smell. Some persons are so susceptible to odors and emanations that the smell of certain substances, as of roses, new-mown hay, etc., or of certain powdered drugs, may excite in them an inflammation of the nasal passages. Hay fever (q.v.) is one form of such inflammation. There is an intimate relation between smell and taste. Delicate flavors are not appreciated when the nose is obstructed, as by catarrh, etc., or in cases of anosmia (q.v.), loss of the sense of smell. Smell influences the respiratory process, and the breathing of a fine odor increases the amplitude of the respiratory movements. The sense of smell may be highly developed, especially where there is deficiency in other senses. By it certain blind and deaf persons are able to recognize anyone with whom they have previously come in contact. This delicate sense is impaired by oversecretion of the nasal mucous membrane (catarrh), by its dryness or its frequent irritation, and may be destroyed by disease or injury.

Sight is the faculty whereby we receive impression of light, movement, form, size, shades of color, and the manifold beauties of nature and art. The organ of sight is the eye, the nerve of sight, the optic nerve. Necessary also to proper vision are the eyebrow, eyelid, eyelashes, lachrymal and Meibomian glands, tearpassages, and certain muscles. Clear vision depends on the focusing rays of light through clear media upon the retina, and the conveyance of impressions so brought to the cerebrum by means of the optic nerves. Defects in vision are color-blindness, myopia, presbyopia, hypermetropia, astigmatism, etc.

Hearing is a sense whose organ is divided into three parts, external, middle and internal. The latter is essential, the others are accessory. Hearing is effected by means of impressions made by the vibrations of elastic bodies (ordinarily the atmosphere). Impressions of soundwaves are conveyed through the complex apparatus of hearing to the auditory nerves, and through them to the brain. Any interference with the delicate mechanism of the auditory apparatus, as by inflammation or injuries, blunts the sense of hearing. See ANATOMY, COMPARATIVE; NOSE; NOSE AND THROAT; SALIVARY GLANDS.

SENSITIVE PLANT, or HUMBLE PLANT, an herb (Mimosa pudica) of the family Mimosacea, a native of tropical America. It is an erect spiny or hairy plant with longpetioled pinnate leaves and numerous purplish flowers in roundish heads, followed by spiny, jointed pods. It is naturalized in many warm countries, and is cultivated as a curiosity in greenhouses and as a summer annual in gardens. The seeds are sown in early spring in any good garden soil and given ordinary care. The plants are chiefly interesting because of the movements of the leaves when touched. If only lightly

touched the leaflets close in pairs, but if more roughly the petioles become depressed. Young foliage responds more quickly, the movement usually occurring within one second after contact. In a few minutes the leaves gradually resume their former expanded position, the time required depending upon the age of the foliage, the warmth of the atmosphere, etc. At night the plants "go to sleep," that is, the leaves become depressed as after contact. Other species of Mimosa, especially M. sensitiva, a semiclimber, are also somewhat sensitive to touch.

SENSORY AREA, a portion of the brain in which the terminals of the sensory nervefilaments finally end, constituting the cerebral centres of sensation. The location of the general sensory area is by no means definitely known. There are a number of sensory areas: thus the area for the sensations of sound is located in the superior temporal convolutions of the brain, and destruction of this area does not prevent the patient from hearing save when both auditory centres are destroyed, but does prevent him from the intellectual appreciation of what is heard. The sensory area for sight is located in the occipital region; for smell in the brain-base. The general feeling sense-area, however, the so-called sensory centre in the brain, is thought to lie below the motor area, somewhat overlapping it. It will probably be many years before the exact limits of the various areas in which the different sensory axones terminate are known. When that time does come, however, the student of the diseases of the mind will be in a much better position to understand the different variations in personality as shown in diseases of certain areas. Consult Flechsig, Gehirn und Seele'; Barker, "The Nervous System.'

SENTENCE, a combination of words so arranged as to express a complete thought. A sentence is, therefore, the unit of thought expression and as such it determines the construction of words in accordance with their relationship to one another and to the sentence itself. Sentences have been classified in various ways. According to grammatical form, they are simple, compound and complex; agreeable to rhetorical construction they are classed as periodic, loose and balanced. A simple sentence contains but one subject and one predicate, and sometimes one or the other of these two essential parts may not be expressed; but in this case it is necessary that it should be understood. The suppression of the subject pronoun is very common in some languages, notably Spanish. A compound sentence contains two or more principal clauses; example, "The way was long; the wind was cold; the minstrel was infirm and old." A complex sentence must contain but one principal clause and one or more subordinate clauses: "The stag at eve had drunk his fill where danced the moon on Mona's Rill." A periodic sentence is so constructed as to hold the thought in suspense until its close: "Having come to the town early in the morning and having wandered about it all day, it was only in the evening that he went to pay the expected visit to his friend." A loose sentence, on the contrary, may be terminated in two or more places, each termination making complete

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sense: "In the evening he paid the expected visit to his friend (after having come to the place early in the morning) and wandered about it all day." A balanced sentence consists of two parts similar in so far as their form is concerned, but frequently expressing a contrast: "She was an ornament to the society in which she moved; he was a disgrace to the mother who bore him." Sentences are also classified, according to their use, into declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory. Most sentences are declarative, because declarative sentence asserts something as a fact. "This road is long," "This road is not long," "This road may be long." These are declarative sentences because each affirms something. One affirms something that is positive, another affirms something that is negative, while the third affirms a doubt or a possibility of doubt in the mind of the speaker. An interrogative sentence, as its name implies, asks a question; an imperative sentence gives a command; and an exclamatory sentence makes a statement under the influence of strong feeling (hence in the form of an exclamation).

Parts of a Sentence.-A sentence may contain subject, predicate, complement, object and various modifiers. In general, in English, the subject and object must be expressed in an imperative sentence, when the pronoun subject is generally suppressed. The complement is used to express the completion of a verbal idea which the verb does not, of itself, complete: "This boy is already a Man." The sentence may have the same kinds of modifiers as the individual words. A subject or object, being a noun or the equivalent thereof, takes adjective modifiers; a verb admits adverbial modifiers; while a noun phrase may serve as the subject or object of a sentence, and as such may take an adjective modifier. Appositional nouns or noun phrases may also be used to modify, through the fact of their apposition, other nouns or noun phrases. Sentences are also sometimes classified as balanced or nonbalanced. A balanced sentence has the words and phrases of one part so arranged that they correspond in position and form to those of another part: Wherever a few great minds have made a stand against violence and fraud, there has been her spirit in the midst of them, inspiring, encouraging, consoling; by the lonely lamp of Erasmus; in the restless bed of Pascal; on the tribune of Mirabeau." A sentence should have clearness, force and unity. Of these three qualities unity is absolutely necessary for a perfect sentence. In other words a sentence should be a unit in substance and expression. (See RHETORIC). Consult Bloomfield, L., 'Introduction to the Study of Language (New York 1914); Bosanquet, 'Logic' (London 1911); Kimball, Structure of the English sentence' (New York 1904); Lockwood and Emerson, Composition and Rhetoric' (Boston 1903).

SENTENCE, in law, is a judgment pronounced by the court or judge on a criminal, being the final determination of the court through a judicial decision, publicly and officially declared in a criminal prosecution. It is not the discretionary act of the court, but the judgment of the law, which it is the ministerial duty of the court to pronounce.

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SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY, A. 'A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy,' by the Rev. Laurence Sterne (171368), was the result of a seven months' trip that the author took for his health in 176566. On his return he completed "Tristram Shandy and, though delayed by serious illness, had written two books of 'A Sentimental Journey by December 1767. These were published on 29 Feb. 1768, and added greatly to the reputation acquired through the former novel. Sterne's death, on March 18, left the book unfinished. What we have is a small volume usually regarded as one of the most original and choice books in English literature, though not of the highest quality. In France its reputation has been even greater than in England.

The book is essentially a more detailed and expanded form of the idea of the seventh volume of "Tristram Shandy,' written while Sterne was in France in 1762-63, with his wife and daughter. Some of the characters and episodes are the same, as that of the mad girl Maria, but the book is composed from a more definite and special point of view; it was "designed to aid us to love the world and our fellow creatures better than we do." Hence, instead of describing show places and scenery or talking of anything in the usual tourist fashion, Sterne deals largely with chance acquaintance and humble adventure - with postillions, innkeepers, grisettes, monks, a starling, statesmen, chambermaids, traveling companions, the old officer, the mad Maria, and with such simple episodes as giving alms, buying gloves, breaking a harness. The aim, however, in all cases is to show the various subtle states of feeling and the sentimental relationships in all such situations. Apparently very rambling and episodical, the essence of the book lies in the delicacy and good-natured feelings of pity, appreciation, sensibility, benignity, or what not, that these various encounters arouse. One or two situations seem to be somewhat strained and are even mawkish and dangerous, but the general tone is cordial, humorous and charitable. Among the best known and characteristic are those of the monk, of the starling, and of Maria, who utters the famous phrase, "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb." The style, like that of Tristram Shandy,' is detached and parenthetical and highly wrought, in detail; in general, it is digressive and episodical. It has much of the humor but does not essay the peculiar wit of the earlier book. Consult the Life of Laurence Sterne by Percy Fitzgerald, the biographical criticism by Paul Stapfer, and H. D. Traill in the English Men of Letters series.

WILLIAM T. BREWSTER.

SENTIMENTAL TOMMY, a novel by J. M. Barrie, published in 1896. It details the life and development of a young writer and is taken to contain considerable autobiographic material. Its sequel is 'Tommy and Grizel' (1900).

SEOUL, sé-ool', SOUL, or locally HANYANG, Korea, the capital of the country, on the river Han, about 70 miles by water from its mouth in the Yellow Sea, and 25 miles by rail from Chemulpo. its seaport. The city

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proper is a short distance from the river, in a basin partly surrounded by heights, and enclosed by a wall. The former royal palace is the chief edifice, and with its grounds occupies over 500 acres enclosed by a lofty wall. Seoul is the seat of various foreign embassies; a Roman Catholic cathedral and a Confucian temple are other noteworthy buildings. Silk, paper, tobacco, mats, fans and similar commodities are the principal products of native industry. There are schools for the teaching of Japanese, French, Chinese, Korean, Russian and English, and an American Mission School, which is subsidized. Two Korean and 23 Japanese newspapers are published in Seoul, which is connected with all the ports of Korea and with the outer world by telegraph. Under Japanese rule considerable advance has been made. Electric lighting and electric street railways have been introduced, and there is railway communication with Chemulpo, Wiju and Fusan. Pop. about 303,000 including over 50,000 Japanese.

SEPARATE ESTATE. See LAW OF HUSBAND AND WIFE.

SEPARATIST SOCIETY OF ZOAR. See ZOAR, SEPARATIST SOCIETY OF.

SEPARATION. See LAW OF HUSBAND AND WIFE.

SEPARATISTS, in Church history, __(1) Those who in the reign of Queen Mary of England refused to conform to the public services of the Roman Catholic Church. Among them was Mr. Rose, who was apprehended with 30 of his congregation while celebrating the Lord's Supper in Bow-church Yard, London. Another well-known Separatist was Mr. Rough of Islington, who with several others was burned at the stake by order of Bishop Bonner. (2) In Ireland the Separatists were numerous, consisting chiefly of the Walkerites, founded by the Rev. John Walker, who seceded from the Established Church of Ireland and founded a small church in Dublin, with the doctrines of the Sandemanians as their creed. Other Irish Separatists were Rev. Mr. Kelly and his adherents who left the Established Church and formed an individual and independent Sandemanian communion. The Darbyites of Ireland were Separatistic Millenarians from whom sprang the Plymouth Brethren. (3) The German Separatists seceded from the Lutheran Church in the 18th century and founded a Pietist sect in Würtemberg. Persecution drove them to emigration and they settled under George Rapp (q.v.) in Pennsylvania, where they founded the Harmony Society, calling themselves Rappists. Those who remained in Germany established themselves at Kornthal, under the name of Kornthalites. All who in Germany refused to conform to the German Evangelical Union, founded by Frederick William III of Prussia, were also known as Separatists. (4) The name was taken by some of the early Puritans such as the Traskites (q.v.). They were subsequently represented by the Quakers. Among the most important sects which have assumed this name are the Separatists of Zoar, a village of Tuscarawas County, Ohio. Their constitution is strictly communistic; they refuse to serve as soldiers; consider celibacy a higher life than marriage; reject all religious ceremonies, while maintaining the cardinal doctrines of Christianity. Although their numbers are consider

ably under 1,000 they enjoy great prosperity; but, belonging as they do to the peasant class of Germany, are simple and uncultured. They have neither audible prayer, nor anything that corresponds with the office of a preacher or minister in their public services. Consult Gardner, 'Faiths of the World.'

SEPIA. See CUTTLEFISH.

SEPIOLITE, a compact, clay-like mineral of smooth feel, hardness 2 to 2.5, specific gravity 2. Owing to its porous nature it floats on water when dry. Color white or slightly tinted gray, yellow, red, or green. It is a hydrous silicate of magnesium, H.Mg2SiO10. Extensive beds in Spain are utilized as a. building stone. The mineral from Morocco is used in Algeria as a substitute for soap. It occurs as a secondary mineral derived from magnesite in the plains of Asia Minor, in alluvial deposits. The mineral from these deposits, popularly known as "Meerschaum" (q.v.), is used in the manufacture of tobacco pipes.

SEPOYS, se poiz, or se-poiz', the name given in India to the forces composed of natives, disciplined after the European manner. The French were the first to see that the transportation of troops from Europe to their Indian colonies would be too expensive and that Europeans would perish in great numbers by the exposure at sea and in the climate of India. They therefore took Hindus into pay and the English adopted the same policy. In 1900 the total strength of the native army in India was 155,249, and that of the European was 73,638. Though not generally equal in courage and dexterity to European soldiers, the Sepoys are hardy and capable of enduring much, and very temperate in their food.

SEPT-FOIL, a typical figure in Roman Catholic Church worship composed of seven equal segments of a circle, used to denote the number of the sacraments, gifts of the Holy Ghost, etc.

SEPTEMBER, the ninth month of the modern year, but the seventh of the old Roman year, which began in March. It has always contained 30 days. See Calendar.

SEPTEMBRISTS, in French history, the name given to the agents in the massacre which took place in Paris on 2 and 3 Sept. 1792, during the French Revolution. The numbers that perished in this massacre have been variously given; but the term has become proverbial throughout Europe for all that is bloodthirsty and malignant in human nature.

SEPTENNATE ACT, The. In the German Parliamentary elections of 1887 the struggle centred around the septennate, or sevenyear army period. On 14 January the emperor dissolved the Reichstag and ordered new elections to take place. The government had proposed the addition of 40,000 men to the standing army, and sanctioned the maintenance of the present military force for another septennate. No previous army grant had been for more than two years. Prince Bismarck favored the measure. The emperor said, "The septennate means peace. Reject it and there will be war." But the delegates voted the supplies for three years only, and the chancellor, by a decree from the throne, dissolved the house. The government secured a majority of about

40 votes in the general election, 1 Feb. 1887, and on 11 March the new Reichstag passed the septennate bill.

SEPTENNIAL ACT, 1716, superseded the Triennial Acts (q.v.) of 1640 and 1694. It extended the duration of a British Parliament to seven years. The Parliament Act of 1911 reduced the maximum duration to five years. This measure was suspended during the European War. See GREAT BRITAIN; PARLIAMENT.

SEPTICEMIA. See BLOOD-POISONING; PY

EMIA.

SEPTUAGESIMA (sep"tü-a-jes'ĭ-ma) SUNDAY, the third Sunday before Lent, so called from its being about 70 days before Easter (septuagesimus, 70th).

SEPTUAGINT, sep'tu-a-jint, the oldest Greek version of the Old Testament. Although nothing is positively known of the origin of the Septuagint it is accepted as probable that we owe the work, also called the LXX, the Alexandrine Version, the Version of the Seventy, etc., to some Alexandrine Jews, who, having lost the knowledge of the Hebrew, caused this translation to be made by some of their learned countrymen, for the use of the synagogues, and called it the Septuagint from the great sanhedrin of 72 members. It dates from the 3d century B.C. At first only the Pentateuch was translated; and the version of the remaining books of the Old Testament was accomplished gradually, the whole being finally completed in the 2d century B.C. From the varieties of style shown in the version it is clear that there must have been several translators, though how many it is impossible to ascertain. The language of the LXX is the Hellenistic Greek of Alexandria, based upon the Attic dialect. The most skilfully executed portion of the Septuagint is the Pentateuch, next to that the book of Proverbs. The translation of the Psalms and Prophets is very indifferent. Of the Prophets the version of Jeremiah is the best, and that of Daniel the poorest. It is inferred regarding the Hebrew manuscript or manuscripts from which the version was made, that the letters were substantially the same as the present square characters, that there were no vowel points, no separation into words, no final letters, and that the words were frequently abbreviated. From the harmony found to subsist in a multitude of instances between the Septuagint and the Samaritan version, it has been surmised that the latter was the basis of the former; but the enmity existing between the Jews and Samaritans militates against this hypothesis. To explain the resemblance between the two versions Gesenius supposes them both to proceed from a common recension of the Hebrew Scriptures, and other hypotheses have been made. The Septuagint is the original of every ancient version of Scripture with the exception of the Syriac Peshito and the Samaritan. It was the sole standard of authority during the first four centuries, and has been the Bible of the Eastern Church from the first. Of 350 direct quotations in the New Testament from the Old Testament, scarcely 50 are found which differ materially from the Septuagint. It does not appear, however, to have obtained general authority so long as Hebrew was understood at Alexandria, nor can it be proved to have been commonly sub

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stituted by the Jews for the original in the synagogue service at an early period. It was, however, adopted by Philo and Josephus, and was universally received by the early Christians. In the transcription of the Septuagint, of which numerous copies were made, a great number of mistakes crept into the text. The task of rectifying it was undertaken by Origen, and the version as amended by him finds a place in his Greek Hexapla. The Septuagint is of undoubted value to the Bible critic, though the translation is not always literal, and misapprehensions of the meaning of the original are frequent. Glosses are very often inserted, and arbitrary paraphrases are numerous. The principal extant manuscripts known are the Codex Alexandrinus in the British Museum, the Codex Vaticanus in Rome, and the Codex Sinaïiticus (imperfect) in Petrograd. The principal printed editions are the Complutensian (1517), the Roman or Sixtine (1587), the Oxford of 1707-20, the Oxford of 1798-1827 (Holmes-Parsons, five vols., folio), and the Cambridge edition by H. B. Swete (1887-94; 2d ed., 1895-99, three vols.). The Septuagint, which had been used by Jews and Christians long after Christ, was gradually superseded by other Greek versions, such as those of Aquila and Symmachus, representing more closely the Hebrew text as it latterly stood, but only small fragments of these now exist. There is a Concordance to the Septuagint by Hatch and Redpath. See BIBLE.

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SEPULCHRAL ARCHITECTURE, form of art whose purpose is to give beauty or magnificence to tombs or to buildings used only for purposes of sepulture. The term may be extended to represent even the ornamental treatment of headstones or slabs. No particular style of architecture belongs strictly to sepulchral structures; the fashion being largely derived from the styles of civic or religious buildings prevailing at the period. Some styles, it may be said, lend themselves more readily than others, at least for splendor of effect. Such for instance is the Gothic, in which style many beautiful specimens exist, particularly in the cathedrals and abbeys of England. In this style is the sepulchral church of Brou at Bourg-enBresse. A distinction is here to be noted between the practice of ancient and mediæval times. In the case of the former the tomb was a building, large or small, apart from structures devoted to the uses of religious worship. The pyramids of Egypt were the most imposing of all human structures; the mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the wonders of the ancient world. The buildings erected in memory of the Mohammedan rulers in northern India as well as the Taj Mahal are to be taken with the foregoing as not strictly tombs, but as belonging to the domain of sepulchral architecture. Of all the Aryan peoples the Romans were conspicuous for their imposing tombs, specimens of which exist in the remains of the tomb of Cæcilia Metella and the Mole of Hadrian, now called the castle of Saint Angelo at Rome. Belonging to the period of the Renaissance are the tombs of the Medici, erected by Michelangelo, though of these the sculptural features are more important than the architectural. One of the most perfect specimens of this period is the tomb of Loys de Brézé, erected by his wife Diane de Poitiers in the cathedral of Rouen, and at

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tributed to Jean Goujon and Jean Cousin. In America the most notable specimen is the tomb of General Grant, a structure resembling_in general form the tomb of Cæcilia Metella. See MAUSOLEUM; MONUMENTS; SCULPTURE; TOMB; BURYING-PLACES.

SEQUESTRATION, in law, the act of taking possession of property by legal authority, as to satisfy creditors, for the use of the State, etc.; also, an equitable writ, directed to a sheriff or a number of commissioners ordering them to enter upon the estate of the defendant and to take the rents, issues and profits and to keep or pay out the same as the court shall direct. It is also used by chancery courts to force compliance with their decrees or orders.

SEQUIN, se'kwin, or sěk'in, an Italian and Turkish gold coin. It was first struck at Venice about the end of the 13th century, and afterward in all the other Italian cities, and from the Levant was introduced into Turkey. The Tuscan sequin is worth $2.30, the Turkish from $1.10 to $1.75.

SEQUOIA, a genus of Conifere, included in the sub-family Taxodioida, of which the other genus is the Taxodium or deciduous cypress. The Sequoia genus (named in honor of the Cherokee chief Sequo-yah, who invented the alphabet of that tribe), was for a time known as Taxodium or Wellingtonia; it comprised two species, S. sempervirens, the redwood, and S. gigantea, the "big-tree," both natives of California. The genus was once widely distributed, as fossil remains testify, and the petrified forest in Arizona is stated to be composed of species of sequoia. The flowers of the sequoias are monoecious and are borne in scaly inflorescences as terminal or axillary shoots in such great profusion, that the pollen covers the ground beneath the trees during their winter blooming. The pistillate flowers mature into a fruit, or oval cone, having persistent woody scales, broadened at their outside ends into a rhomboidal flat top, very much wrinkled, and with a slightly prickletipped apex. Their scales are slightly separated to allow the many brown, compressed seeds to escape and then spin away on their lateral wings. The leaves are acute, compressed and keeled, decurrent on the stem, alternate and inserted in spirals, very scale-like on the branchlets, but on older branches linear and spreading.

The redwood, which was the first Sequoia discovered, is the more common species, and grows along the Pacific Coast just so far inland as the sea-fogs can go. It is a very straight, handsome tree, with columnar trunk, and spreading branches and branchlets, and reaches in some instances as great a height as the other and more famous species. See REDWOOD.

SEQUOIA GIGANTEA, the "big-tree of California," is more rare. It is found in 10 small groves, forming an uninterrupted "belt" extending for 200 miles on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and nowhere else in the world. It grows at elevations of 4,000 to 7,000 feet. This has suggested that possible lower growths were destroyed by glacial action. The Calaveras grove near the northern extremity of this series is the most picturesque and important group of big trees,

and was first discovered by J. Bidwell in 1841. These famous trees are the most massive of any in the world, but are not the tallest, being surpassed by the Eucalyptus trees of Australia. They are practically exempt from disease, and, if they were not injured by fire and by man, would have apparently an almost endless life. Some of them are judged, by the number of annual rings, to have been thousands of years old. Fully grown trees average a height of 275 feet, and a diameter of 25 feet. One of the most gigantic, cut down, with great difficulty, in 1853, was 302 feet in height, 96 feet in circumference, and after the bark was removed (which was itself nearly 18 inches thick, the diameter of the solid wood in the stump was 25 feet, 6 feet from the ground. This stump was used as a dancing floor, holding 40 or more persons. Others have been estimated as between 350 and 400 feet high. A section of one of these great trees has been placed in the Museum of Natural History in New York, and another in South Kensington, England.

The younger sequoias are very graceful, and charming in their dark blue-green foliage, being often grown in English and European parks. They have a straight, tapering stem from which the branches spring to form a narrow spire-like pyramid. After a few hundred years they begin to lose their branches, and become dome-like. Ultimately they become our picturesque trees, with a great trunk enlarged at the base, and strongly buttressed, fluted with low broad ridges, and covered with cinnamon brown bark (purple-tinted in the shadow) which follows the contour of the lobed trunk, and is deeply, longitudinally furrowed, and separated into fibrous scales on the ridges. This tapering shaft is naked for 100 or more feet, when great branches, eccentric in development, join in constructing the narrow, but massive domes which stand out above the other tall trees of the Sierras, and break into delicate but dense spray of much divided pendulous branchlets, blue-green when young but developing a bronzy tint when mature.

The big trees, while standing, have served as shelter for men and cattle, and are a constant attraction for tourists, the largest being known by name. One, the Wawona, in the Mariposa grove, has a portal cut through its base, which allows the passage of vehicles. But there is constant danger of their extinction. Only one comparatively unimportant and uninteresting group, the Mariposa grove, is efficiently protected. The others are owned by private interests and often by lumbermen, who cut down the magnificent trees for the sake of their light soft wood, bright red in the heart, and durable when in contact with soil, and which is dynamited apart, with enormous waste, and made principally into fencing and shingling. The big-tree has not the tremendous reproductive powers of the redwoods, the seeds have very low vitality, and in some groves almost no seedlings are found; moreover, the flocks of sheep pastured on the mountains destroy the saplings, and the dreaded forest fires not only decimate the patriarchs but devour the young growth. Consult Jeffrey, Comparative Anatomy of the Coniferales,' pt. 1, Vol. V, Memoir Boston Society of Natural History (1903). See REDWOOD,