i:\IMENSE TEEES. 137 



sixty feet liigli, by thirty feet in circumference, so that it 

 is not so much the enormous size of the Zamang del 

 Guayre that constitutes its great attraction, as the wonder- 

 ful sj^read of its magnificent branches, and the perfect 

 dome-like shape of its head, which is so exact and regular 

 that one could almost fancy some extinct race of giants 

 had been exercising their topiarian art upon it. The 

 circumference of this dome is said to be nearly six hun- 

 dred feet, and the measure [arch?] of its semicircular 

 head very nearly as great. The zamang is a species of 

 mimosa, and what is curious and adds greatly to its 

 beauty and softness is, that the leaves of this giant of 

 nature are as small and delicate as those of the silver- 

 willow, and are equally as sensitive to every passing 

 breeze."* 



Even in temperate climates, among the trees with which 

 we are familiar, vast dimensions are not unknown. A 

 yew in the churchyard of Grasford, North Wales, mea- 

 sures more than fifty feet in girth below the branches. 

 In Lithuania, lime-trees have been measured of the cir- 

 cumference of eighty-seven feet.j And, near Saintes, in 

 France, there is an oak, which is sixty-four feet in heiglit, 

 and measures nearly thirty feet in diameter close to the 

 ground, and twenty-three feet at five feet high. A little 

 room, twelve feet nine inches in width, has been made in 

 the hollow of the trunk, and a semicircular bench within 

 it has been carved out of the living wood. A window 



* Sullivan's Rambles in North and South Amenca, p. 400. 

 + Endlicher, Grunclz. der Bot., p. 399. 



