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Yet, once in bed, I had never thought about it one way or the other, and by day had certainly never sought it out. One night, then, as I went to bed and closed this window against a cutting easterly wind, I saw that there were two of these trees. A brother wellingtonia rose mysteriously beside it, equally huge, equally towering, equally monstrous.
The bell rang, the gangway was raised, and the Wellingtonia moved from the side of the quay; and when at last they had fairly bid good-bye to Australia, they turned to look at each other, and to realise that another leaf in the book of life had been turned over.
But the tree episode, I think, was the most curious of all except, perhaps, the incident with the children which I shall mention in a moment for its closeness to reality was so unforgettable. Outside the east window of my room stood a giant wellingtonia on the lawn, its head rising level with the upper sash.
If a thing is launched with a great beating of drums and blowing of trumpets, you may be pretty sure there is very little in it. Drums are hollow, or they would not make such a noise. Trumpets only catch and give forth wind. They say I know not whether it is true that the Wellingtonia gigantea, the greatest of forest trees, has a smaller seed than any of its congeners.
"Do you see those three innocent darlings playing together, under the eye of their governess, by the Wellingtonia yonder?" enquired the lady. "The little girl in white and the two boys?" asked Peter. "Precisely," said she. "Such as they are, they're me own." "Really?" he responded, in the tone of profound and sympathetic interest we are apt to affect when parents begin about their children.
Hughes, who wrote occasionally, I naturally thought he was still keeping up his unaccountable anger against me; and the busy life of an Australian station soon occupied my life entirely; but, hurrah! for old Cymry now. We'll go back and make it all right, Cardo." And in less than a month from this time, a very bright and cheerful party went on board the fast sailing steamer Wellingtonia.
They are ordinarily called pyramidal or fastigiate forms, and as far as their history goes, they arise suddenly in large sowings of the normal species. The fastigiate birch was produced in this way by Baumann, the Abies concolor fastigiata by Thibault and Keteleer at Paris, the pyramidal cedar by Paillat, the analogous form of Wellingtonia by Otin.
It was impossible to go about the garden under these circumstances, so Dexter went down a little way, passed round a large Wellingtonia, and walked slowly back toward the house, but, instead of entering, went by the open window of the study, where the voice of Mr Limpney could still be heard talking loudly, and, as it seemed to the listening boy, breathing out threatenings against his peace of mind.
Supposing this giant to be a new tree, it was there christened Wellingtonia, and also gigantea for its immense measurements. While Americans were trying to have it called Washingtonia, a famous Frenchman who knew all about trees decided that the specimen sent him was certainly a sequoia, as named by a German professor some six years before this time.
The name of Wellingtonia has been given to the species. In the same region are numerous magnificent stalactite caverns, which equal in beauty, if not in size, those of the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. There are several waterfalls, unsurpassed for picturesque beauty.
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