d4S Prof. De CandoUe on the Longevity of Trees ^ 



dunculata, which grows quickly, and to a great height, has been 

 very generally confounded with the Quercus sessilijlora, which 

 grows more slowly, becomes harder, and is more tortuous ; in 

 consequence of this confusion, it is impossible to compart the 

 documents which have been obtained. There are many in- 

 stances to be seen of the thickness which oak-trees may attain, 

 in the Sylva of Evelyn, a valuable work, from which I have 

 frequently obtained useful information. I have reason to be- 

 lieve that there are oaks, even in France, of 1500 or 1600 years 

 of age, but it would be proper to verify these dates by more 

 careful investigations. 



11. The olive-tree is also capable of attaining an astonishing 

 age, in countries where it is not exposed to the axe. M. Cha- 

 teaubriand mentions, in his Itinerary, that the eight olive-trees 

 in the olive garden in Jerusalem, only pay a rnedin each, 

 5^5 of a piastre, to the Grand Seignor, which proves that they 

 existed at the invasion of the Turks, because, of those planted 

 since, the half of their fruit is paid. The largest olive-tree in 

 Italy, mentioned by Picconi, is at Pescio ; it is 7696 metres in 

 circumference. If the calculation of Moschcttini is to be relied 

 on, that the olive-tree grows a line and a half annually, it would 

 be about 700 years old; but this estimation, compared with 

 younger trees, must be below the truth. 



12. Of all the European trees, the yew (If) appears to have 

 reached the most advanced age. I measured the layers of one 

 of 71, Oelhafen one of 150, and Veillard one of 280 years old : 

 these three measurements agree in proving that this tree grows 

 a little more than one line annually in the first 150 years, and 

 a little less from 150 to 250 years. If we admit an average of 

 a line annually for very old yews, it is probably within the 

 truth, and that in reckoning the number of their years as equal 

 to that of the lines of their diameter, they are younger than 

 they actually are. Now, I find four measurements of celebrated 

 yew trees in Great Britain. 



Those of the ancient Abbey of Fontaine near Rippon, in 

 Yorkshire, known in 1133, were in 1770, according to Pennant, 

 1214 lines in diameter, or upwards of 1200 years old. 



Those in the church-yard of Crow-hurst, in the corinty of 

 Surrey, were, according to Evelyn, 1287 lines in diameter in 



