Nature^ Longevity ^ and Size of Trees. 9 



without difficulty, be ascertained by us. With regard to 

 trees, however, of whatever species, these points in their his- 

 tory may be said to be absolutely unknown to us, and that, 

 too, as before observed, notwithstanding the facilities which 

 exist for making observations upon them. Every such object 

 is looked upon as a single individual, in the same sense that 

 a man or a dog is so regarded ; and while it is believed to 

 be subject to the law of mortality, and to the law of a definite 

 size of organism, it is believed also to be, as compared with 

 any known animal, very long-lived, and capable of attaining 

 to a gigantic bulk. But no more precise idea than this is 

 entertained as to its longevity or its size, and even this view 

 of the matter is beset with considerations of perplexity. 



II. But if the principles formerly advanced in regard to 

 the nature of trees are well founded, that perplexity will be 

 obviated, and an accurate idea may be formed as to the 

 longevity and the size of this class of objects. 



Agreeably to those principles, a tree is not what it is usu- 

 ally regarded, nor what it appears to be, a single or an indi- 

 vidual plants capable as such of living for many years or ages, 

 and of attaining to an enormous size. On the contrary, it is 

 a collection, congeries, or congregation of individual plants 

 of the same species, the production of a series of successive 

 years, and consists, at mid-summer, partly of living and en- 

 tire plants, the produce of the existing year, and partly and 

 chiefly of the persistent dead remains of the plants of by- 

 gone years. And of the individuals composing it, each lives 

 only one year, reaches its full size within the year, and on 

 dying at the close of it completely disappears, save only the 

 buds which survive the winter, and the dead stems and roots 

 which are to serve the purposes both of a temporary soil, and 

 of a permanent mechanical support to the plants of next year. 

 And, accordingly, the production of the aggregate of dead 

 and living plants is referable to the living plants of each 

 year growing parasitically at the extremities of, and also 

 either around (as in Exogens) or within (as in Endogens) the 

 dead stems and roots of the plants of the previous year. 



Those principles, however, it may be remarked, are only a 



