1885.] HISTORICAL NOTICE OF CELEBRATED TREES. 89 



rate of growth when young, he states that the tree acquires the 

 diameter of 1 inch or 1^ inch in the first year, the diameter 

 of 1 foot in ten years, and about 1 ^ in thirty years, which certainly 

 agree pretty well with the table I have just spoken of; but so far 

 from having extended these data, and employed them in the manner 

 which is attributed to him, he says that although it might be 

 desirable thus to employ them, a good knowledge of geometry teaches 

 that they are quite insufficient for that purpose. Hence, instead of 

 attempting any precise determination, he merely offers the prohahle 

 conjecture that these largest Baobabs may have been in existence for 

 several thousand years, or nearly from the period of the universal 

 deluge. The table has been so often published in the encyclopa3dias 

 in this country, as well as in foreign works of great authority, that 

 I have considered it necessary to point out to- you at some length 

 the uncertainty regarding its authenticity. I believe it was actually 

 drawn up by Duchesne, a French writer on forest trees, since the 

 commencement of the present century, his only data being the 

 observations of Adanson on trees up to the age of thirty years, and 

 his supposition that the largest ones might have been coeval with 

 the deluge — from these the intermediate years were intercalated. 



But as already said, whatever doubts may be entertained as to 

 their actual age, there is a strong presumption in favour of their 

 being the most ancient living monuments in the world. On the 

 western coast of Africa this tree is very liable to be attacked by 

 fungi, which prey upon its heart-wood, and without changing its 

 colour or general appearance, destroy the life of the plant, and 

 render its timber very soft. Trees thus destroyed are hollowed out 

 as mcmsolca or burial-places, to receive the dead bodies of physicians 

 and magicians, and such other persons who, from their skill, are 

 presumed by the superstitious natives to hold communion with evil 

 spirits, and are therefore denied the common rites of sepulture. 

 The bodies suspended in these chambers become dry and are well- 

 preserved, like mummies, and are called in the language of the 

 country Chbiriots. 



THE CYPEESS. 



We shall now turn our attention to the deciduous Cypress or 

 Cuprcssus disticha, a native of the southern states of iSTorth America 

 and of Mexico, in which latter country it attains its most ample 

 development. It grows generally in water, or in low flat lands, 

 near the banks of great rivers and lakes, that are covered great part 

 of the year with 2 or 3 feet depth of water ; and that part of the 

 trunk which is subject to be under water, and 4 or 5 feet higher up, 

 is generally enlarged by prodigious buttresses or pilasters, which, in 



