and on the Means of ascertaining it. 339 



and the account of its fall was obligingly communicated by Mr 

 Alexis Forel. Its cut indicated 335 years of age ; at its fall it 

 Was perfectly sound, and had grown in a light moist soil; its 

 trunk, at the neck, was 17 feet 7 inches diameter, Swiss mea- 

 sure (the foot being equal to 3 decim.), 30 feet in circum- 

 ference below the branches, 12 feet from the ground, and one of 

 the five thick branches was 16 feet in circumference : the tree 

 fell during a calm season, the soil having been probably washed 

 away by the waters of the Lake Leman. Its mean increase 

 was 34 lines annually ; but on a division by centuries, it was 

 observed, that it had grown 6 lines annually in the first, 2J in 

 the second, and 2| in the third century; these figures agreed 

 with those which are generally found in the elms which were 

 planted by order of Sully before the churches in France. We 

 ought carefully to distinguish between the rate of increase in 

 large and small-leaved elms ; the latter is longer lived, and seems 

 to grow more slowly *. 



2. I saw an ivy (Lierre) in 1814 at Gigeau, near Montpellier, 

 whose trunk near the base was 6 feet in circumference, which as- 

 tonished by its immense size: another ivy of forty-five years old 

 was only 7| inches in circumference. If this is to be taken as 

 a model, the ivy of Gigeau should have been 433 years old in 

 1814, and about 450 at present, if, as I hope, it is still in exist- 

 ence. It is probable, that if there be a mistake in this, as also in 

 the following examples, it is owing to my having calculated the 

 age of the individuals at the very lowest rate. 



3. Above I have given the measurement o^a\3Xch-iree( Meleze) 

 of 255 years old. Assuming this example to be a law of nature, 

 we may believe that there are some between 500 and 600 years 

 old, but it is of consequence to multiply the measurements of their 

 layers. 



4. The lime (TilleulJ is the European tree which, in a given 

 time, seems capable of acquiring the greatest diameter; that 

 which was planted at Fribourg in 1476, on account of the battle 



• The treaty which William Penn made with the natives in 1682, was ne- 

 gotiated under a large (American) elm, which grew on the spot now called 

 Kensington, just above Philadelphia. It was prostrated by a storm in 1 810, at 

 which time its stem measured 24 feet in circumference. — Memoirs 0/ Hist. Soc, 

 Pen. 



Y U 



