1877.] 



AND HORTIGULTURIST. 



21 



from ten to fifteen feet, and above which the 

 heavy branches spread over an area of seven 

 hundred feet. 



I have seen in my travels many strange trees, 

 historical, beautiful, magnificent, venerable, gi- 

 gantic, ancient, and remarkable, to which I have 

 frequently alluded in the Monthly. Much larger 

 specimens have often amazed me in other lands, 

 but, nowhere else in this country have I ever 

 met with such a ligneous immensity as this. 



I will quote from Lovidon, on Recorded Trees, 

 and than whom, there is no better authority. 



" On a little island in the Ohio, fifteen miles 

 from the mouth of the Muskingum, the elder 

 Michaux measured a button-wood tree which at 

 five feet from the ground was forty feet in cir- 

 cumference. Twenty years before. General 

 Washington had measured the same tree and 

 found it to be nearly the same size. In 1802, the 

 younger Michaux found on the right bank of the 

 same river, (the Ohio,) about thirty-six miles 

 from Marietta, a plane-tree, the base of which 

 was swollen in an extraordinary manner ; 

 at four feet from the ground, it measured 

 forty-seven feet in circumference." 



Other writers give instances of large planes, 

 but much less in size than the above mentioned 

 tree. So I think I am safe in pronouncing the 

 arboreal Upper Sanduskian, the biggest tree of 

 its kind on record. 



Not far from the huge Platanus, stands an un- 

 usually fine Robinia pseud-acacia, or locust-tree. 

 This exceedingly handsome specimen, (which is 

 not the general character of ihem when aged,) 

 is a hale, green tree, of about one hundred and 

 twenty-five feet high. At four feet from the base 

 the girth of the bole measures sixteen feet ; and 

 up to thirty feet above, where it first branches 

 off, maintains nearly the same calibre as below. 

 A more porth', vigorous, or stately locust-tree is 

 seldom, if ever, seen. The rich, deep alluvium in 

 which they are growing, has evidently nourished 

 them well ; for in truth, they are " burly and 

 big." 



As I looked at the noble old trees, thinking of 

 the past, a past, so fraught with the history of the 

 aboriginal race, in the days when the once pow- 

 erful nation of Wyandot Indians, occupied the 

 primeval forests around ; I thought on how much 

 the affairs of life have changed since then. It is not 

 improbable in the events which then occurred, 

 that the great Chief Farhee, (the good Indian,) 

 better known as the "Crane," may many times 

 have met in solemn council, or noisy pow-wow. 



with his swarthy braves, beneath the shady 

 boughs of the ancient plane. 



It was while in the immediate neighborhood 

 of Upper Sandusky, in the year of grace, 1816, 

 after seventy-four summers and winters had 

 come and gone, since the face of the forest child 

 was first warmed by the western sun, when the 

 " Great Spirit " called the old Sachem away. 



If the long suffering reader is not already 

 wearied with the tiresome tale of a tree, I will 

 venture to tax his patience a little longer, 

 while describing a noted " Indian apple tree." 

 This famous, and in many respects remark- 

 able tree, grows on the opposite side of the river, 

 and about a mile from where stands the locust 

 and plane. Inasmuch as the circumference of 

 this " sour apple tree " is considerably more than 

 my tape-line ever girdled before,namely, at three 

 feet from the ground, twelve feet six inches ; I 

 trust I may be pardoned for having mentioned 

 it. At five feet above the ground, the trunk 

 branches off into a number of good sized boughs, 

 and which attain to a height of some sixty feet 

 above, and spread over a circle of seventy feet. 

 Undoubtedly, the tree is a very old one, and has 

 been at some past time, at least, fourteen feet in 

 circumference. A part of it having been riven 

 off", branch and stem, some years ago. 



The late Mr. Downing thus describes three 

 enormous sized apple trees: "Among others, we 

 recollect two in the grounds of Mr. Hall, of 

 Raynham, Rhode Island, which ten years ago, 

 were 130 years old ; the trunk of one of these 

 trees then measured at one foot from the ground 

 thirteen feet two inches, and the other, twelve 

 feet two inches. The trees bore that season 

 thirty or forty bushels; but in the year 1780, 

 they together bore one hundred and one bushels 

 of apples. In Duxbury, Plymouth County, Mass., 

 is a tree which in its girth measures twelve feet 

 five inches, and which has yielded in a single 

 season one hundred and twenty-one and a half 

 bushels. 



Unquestionably, they were three good old trees, 

 and were no doubt as much valued by the own- 

 ers, as the aforementioned trees are prized by 

 the cultivated and intelligent citizens of Upper 

 Sandusky. 



VALUE OF A TREE. 



BY W. 



Bagot's Park, Staffordshire, is very large and 

 contains some grand oaks, some of which have 



