S40 Prof. De CandoUe on the Longevity of Trees, 



of Morat, is actually 13 feet 9 inches diameter, which gives an an- 

 nual increase of about 2 lines. This quantity, equal to that of 

 the oak, seems, in ray opinion, to indicate that it was not in a 

 favourable soil ; and I should be induced to believe, that it would 

 be more correct to admit an average increase of 4 lines annually. 

 As there are a good many large lime-trees in Europe, it would 

 be important to have the circumference of those whose dates are 

 known. I may mention, on account of their thickness, that of 

 the Castle of Chaille, near Melles, in the department of the 

 Deux-Sevres, which, in 1804, was 15 metres in circumference, 

 at that time, I imagine, 538 years old : that of Trons in the 

 Grisons, famous even in 1424, which, in 1798, was 51 feet in 

 circumference, and, I suppose, 583 years of age ; that of Depe- 

 ham, near Norwich, which, in 1664, was 8J yards mean circum- 

 ference ; that of Neustadt in Wurtemberg, which, in 1580, was 

 so thick as to require props, and in 1664 was 37 feet 4 inches in 

 circumference. In studying the lime-tree more minutely, we 

 ought carefully to distinguish between those of large and small 

 leaves ; the former seem to increase more quickly than the latter. 



5. The evergreen cypresses are certainly among the trees of 

 Southern Europe which reach the greatest age, and the custom 

 of planting them in church-yards has rendered them an object of 

 respect, and afforded means of measuring them. Hunter says that, 

 in 1776, there were a few in the garden of the palace at Grenada, 

 which had some celebrity at the time of the Moorish kings, and 

 which were still called Citpressos de la Regna Sultana, because a 

 Sultana was found there with Abencerrages. I can find no 

 precise information, however, respecting the increase of these 

 trees, which I point out to naturalists *. 



6. The chestnut-trees appear capable of attaining a great age, 

 but I do not found this opinion on the famous tree of a hundred 

 horses on Mount Etna. Messrs Simond and Durby have com- 

 municated details respecting it, which seem to establish that this 

 tree, which is 70 feet in circumference, is an amalgamation of 

 many. We ought, indeed, to estimate the growth of this tree 

 by trunks of extraordinary size ; there are many very large ones 

 on Mount Etna. Poederle mentions having seen one 50 feet in 

 circumference in Gloucestershire, which was believed to be 900 



• Cypress, mentioned about 350 years o\(\.—Organographie. 



