The largest stump extant is in Mill Valley, Marin County, half an hour's ride north of San Francisco. This remnant of a great tree belongs to the redwood family; is, in fact, a genuine _Sequoia sempervirens_. How high it may have been it is impossible to say. Its circumference now is 135 feet, and measures across, on an average, 43 feet 6 inches. The saplings which stand round the ruin measure from 3 to 10 feet in diameter. The largest standing tree is the "Mother of the Forest," in the Calaveras grove. It now measures, without the bark, at the base 84 feet, and the full circumference, with the bark, which was stripped off in 1854 for exhibition purposes, was 90 feet. Its height is 321 feet, and the tree is estimated to contain 537,000 feet of inch lumber, allowing for saw cuts. Close to it, prone upon mother earth, lies the "Father of the Forest." When standing, it is accredited with having been 400 feet high, with a circumference at the base of 110 feet, and he unquestionably was once king of the grove. "The living and representative trees of the Calaveras groves," says J. M. Hutchings, in "The Heart of the Sierras," "consist of ten that are each 30 feet in diameter, and over seventy that measure from 15 to 30 feet at the ground." About six miles to the southeast of the Calaveras grove (in Calaveras County, Cal.) is the South grove. It contains 1,380 _Sequoias_, ranging from 1 foot to 34 feet in diameter. In the Mariposa grove, in Mariposa County, Cal., there are many large trees, among them the "Grizzly Giant," measuring 91 feet at the ground, and 74 feet 6 inches three feet six inches above the ground, and is 275 feet high. Many very large trees and many interesting facts might be mentioned relative to them. The _Sequoia gigantea_ in the Sierras, in addition to the differences in cone and flower from the _Sequoia sempervirens_, has this one that, while the former grows only from seeds, the latter grows from both seeds and suckers, though mainly from the latter. The _Sequoias_ of the Sierras rise to a height of 275 or even 350 feet, and are from 20 to 30, or even in rare cases 40 feet in diameter. CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE FLOWERS OF THE FAR WEST. For centuries the rose--the queen of flowers--has been a never ceasing inspiration to poets and writers. Every bard has sung his lay to the majesty of this peerless flower. Every ancient country has its rose traditions. Fashions do not assail the rose, only in specialty and variety. The unanimity characterizing its nomenclature is but another feature in the unvarying and universal popularity of the rose. All research fails to reveal the white rose as known to the ancients; the Greek word "rodon," ruddy, being used synonymously by all countries.