374 HISTORICAL NOTICE OF CELEBRATED TREES. [Oct. 



great decrepitude, it bore an abundant crop of fruit. In the 

 citadel of Athens is still preserved an olive tree of which the 

 origin is believed to be coeval with tlie foundation of the city. 

 The olive trees now growing in the garden of the IMount of Olives, 

 at Jerusalem, are assuredly as old as the time of the Lower Empire, 

 and this is the proof of it : — When the Mussulmen invaded 

 Palestine, every olive tree then found growing paid but one medin 

 or para to the tax-gatherer, and of all those trees planted since the 

 conquest, one-half the fruit belongs to the Grand Siguier; and as 

 the 8 olive trees in question pay only the 8 medins, they are 

 therefore estimated at the lowest rate to be 600 years old. 

 Tradition asserts, however, that these same trees were in existence 

 at the time of our Saviour's passion. It is not improbable that 

 many of the existing trunks of olive trees may be new sprouts 

 from the old stock. Thus Chateaubriand says that the olive tree 

 may almost lay claim to immortality, young shoots continually 

 springing from the ancient root-stocks. 



The Sycamoee. 



The sycamore {Acer pseudo-platanus) is another of the European 

 trees which appears to reach a considerable age. The most cele- 

 brated of this kind known is that which is at the entrance of the 

 village of Trons, in the Grisons, the cradle of liberty among the 

 Ehsetian Alps. It appears to be well authenticated that it w\t,s 

 under the once wide-spreading branches of this now hollow and 

 cloven trunk that the first confederates met in 1424:, and solemnly 

 ratified the league, by which they were to restore liberty to their 

 country. Its trunk 18 inches from the ground is 29 English feet 

 in circumference, or 9 feet o^ inches in diameter. If we suppose 

 that it was only a century old, and a younger tree would scarcely 

 have been selected for so solemn a purpose, it has now attained an 

 age of upwards of 500 years. It can scarce be younger; it may be 

 much older than this. In some of the earlier accounts, this tree is 

 said to be a linden. Indeed it is so called in the inscription upon 

 the walls of the adjacent little chapel. They were better patriots 

 than botanists in those days ; for the investigations of Colonel 

 Bontemps leave no doubt as to the identity of the tree. 



The Mahogany. 

 "liie mahoo^any (SivuUni malwgani) is a tree that must be 

 ranked among the most ancient on the face of the globe, when we 

 consider that the hardness and weight of its wood indicate a very 

 slow f^rowth. [Sir W. Hooker mentions that] at Honduras it is 

 not considered to reach maturity till about 200 years old, and that 



