332 Prof. De CandoUe on the Longevity/ of Trees, 



9aise ; but the life of man is too short for similar researches, op- 

 portunities are very rare, and examples should be sought for in 

 countries neither exposed to frost nor the destructive hand of 

 man. The very means of ascertaining the age of old trees are per- 

 haps not sufficiently known by travellers, or those who are in- 

 terested in such inquiries. This has induced me to call the pub- 

 lic attention to them by this particular article. 



The longevity of certain trees is truly interesting, were it 

 merely from motives of curiosity. If we prize every document 

 of antiquity, why should we not attach a higher degree of im- 

 portance, to know whether such a tree be the contemporary of 

 the oldest generations ? In certain cases, this knowledge might 

 throw light on the history of monuments, as that of monuments 

 on the history of the trees in their vicinity. This discussion 

 may be useful in a history of the very globe we inhabit. If the 

 known number of veterans in vegetation increases in time to 

 come, if we succeed in determining their age with greater pre- 

 cision, may we not find in such facts some means of fixing the 

 approximate date of the last revolutions of the globe ? If re- 

 searches of this kind were made respecting volcanic or madre- 

 poric islands, might we not draw some inference respecting the 

 date of their origin ? But leaving the consideration of questions 

 of such magnitude, if we reflect on the means of obtaining a so- 

 lution of our question, we shall see that they are all founded on 



which, at the time, was not thought worthy of notice. Lastly, there might 

 be attached to the same section a written meteorological table, compiled from 

 the observations of some scientific person, if such observations had been made 

 in the vicinity. This being done, why, in the eye of science, might not this 

 natural, unerring, graphical record of seasons past deserve as careful preserva- 

 tion as a curious mineral or a new form of crystals ? 



If you should think fit to make such a suggestion, it might lead, in fact, to 

 the preservation of sections from aged trees in different parts of the country, 

 and a comparison of their lines of growth with the history of the weather as 

 far back as our knowledge extends. If the observations just related, with 

 respect to a particular lot of timber, should be found to hold true of trees in 

 general, drawings of these sections, on a reduced scale, would soon find their 

 way to the pages of scientific journals. It would be interesting, then, to 

 make comparisons of one with another, — to compare the sections of the one 

 kind of tree with that of another from the same locality, — or to compare sec- 

 tions of the same kind of tree from different parts of the country. Such a 

 comparison would elicit a mass of facts, both with respect to the progress of 

 the seasons and their relation to the growth of timber, and might prove, here- 

 after, the means of carrying back our knowledge of the seasons through a pe- 

 riod coeval with the age ot the oldest forest-trees, and in regions of country 

 where scientific observation has never yet penetrated, nor a civilized popuki« 

 tion dwelt Mr Twining in Silliman^s Journal, vol. xxiv. p. 39 J. 



