THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 405 



wards the north is narrower and has closer and denser rings 

 than the other." 1 



At a later date, Adanson, the botanist, was enabled, by 

 means of observation, to prove how exact were the state- 

 ments of our celebrated writer. An avenue of trees in the 

 Champs-Elysees, planted 200 years previously, being cut 

 down in his time, the same number of woody zones was 

 found in a transverse section of the trunks of each one. 

 This section therefore showed their age. 



These views about growth explain certain phenomena 

 which have often been considered miraculous. 



When, as an imperishable testimony to their constancy, 

 two lovers carve their entwined initials upon the bark, the 

 chisellings on the tree, alas ! do not endure longer than 

 their vows. The incessant separation which the parts of 

 this envelope undergo, owing to annual growth, first dis- 

 torts and then totally effaces the letters. 



But if the engraving penetrate deeper, if the tool pass 

 through the layers of the bark and reach the wood, all goes 

 differently ; the workman has carved upon solid matter. As 

 years only cause the deposit of new woody layers upon the 

 surface of the work, this is preserved intact. And when, 

 after a long lapse of time, the trunk is cleft, the chisellings 

 are revealed to our astonished eyes, in marvellous preserva- 

 tion and in the depths of its layers. 



Solid bodies introduced into the wooded layers are speed- 

 ily covered by and soon disappear beneath them. Professor 



1 M. Ch. Musset states that the trunks of trees are always flattened in a north- 

 erly and southerly direction, and expand in an east and west plane : a fact which 

 he considers quite in accordance with astronomical laws. 



