Nature, Longevity^ and Size of Trees. 11 



given tree, How long does it naturally live % the answer must 

 be — contrary, however, to the common opinion — that there is 

 no limit to the age it may attain, or the number of years it 

 may live, except what is imposed by purely accidental causes ; 

 because, according to the principles insisted on as to the na- 

 ture of trees, there is no natural limit to the annual propa- 

 gation from buds of the individual plants of which every such 

 object is truly composed. According to this view, the obser- 

 vation of Richard formerly quoted, to wit, that the cedars of 

 Lebanon appear to be indestructible, is perfectly intelligible, 

 involves no violation of the principle that all living beings 

 are subject to the law and the dominion of death, and is ap- 

 plicable besides to all trees. And if it be asked in respect of 

 any given tree, what is the size to which it naturally grows ? 

 the proper answer is — contrary, again, to the popular belief — 

 that there is no natural limit thereto, and no actual limit, 

 except from such accidental causes as prevent the formation 

 of buds, or the evolution of new plants therefrom. 



If, however, the like questions be put in respect, not of 

 individual trees^ but of individual tree-plants — of the oak, the 

 elm, the fir, for example, viewed simply as plants, and inde- 

 pendently of their parasitic relations^to others of their re- 

 spective species, very different answers must be returned. 

 The answer to the former question will be, that they live, 

 one and all of them, only for a single year, and are, as re- 

 gards their longevity, on the same footing with confessedly 

 annual plants. And in answer to the latter, it may sufiice 

 to state, that, as they all attain their maturity within the 

 year, so the size of any of them may be accurately judged of 

 by observation of the seedling plants of its kind growing in 

 the forester's nursery, or of the yearly shoots issuing from 

 the buds on a tree of that particular species ; and that while 

 subject to some variety, it does not, in general, in any spe- 

 cies, exceed a few inches, or, at the utmost, a very few feet. 



But if the representation which has been made of their 

 nature is well founded, how comes it, it may be asked, that 

 we nowhere find, what we might expect to see, trees evincing 

 by their appearance that they are probably coeval with the 

 creation of the world — coeval at least with the deluge, or the 



