Sequoia
(sɪˈkwəʊɪə, sɪˈkwɔɪə)
[mod.Latin (Endlicher, 1847); after Sequoiah, a Cherokee, who invented a syllabary for writing his native language.]
A genus of large American coniferous trees belonging to the Abietinæ; a tree of this genus. Cf. redwood n. 2. Popularly often called Wellingtonia, the name given by Lindley, 1853.
| 1866 Treas. Bot., Sequoia (including Wellingtonia). A genus of the Abietinæ tribe of Coniferæ from North-western America, closely allied to Sciadopitys. 1870 Emerson Soc. & Solit., Farming Wks. (Bohn) III. 60 The mammoth Sequoias rose to their enormous proportions. 1878 J. E. Taylor Flowers 61 The Sequoias (better known as Wellingtonias) of which there are now only two species. 1890 W. J. Gordon Foundry 123 There is the ‘curly redwood’, due to the sequoia taking a twist when young. |