26 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Tree Curiosities 



Man, it seems, has always venerated the 

 trees. Alihough we no longer worshijj the 

 giants of the forests as did the ancient 

 Druids wlien the}' built their great altars at 

 Stonehengc, we still regard certain trees as 

 precious memories and look upon them with 

 infinitely more respect than we give any man- 

 made monument. Innumerable villages and 

 hamlets all over the world contain trees made 

 famous by some historical event or by some 

 noted i^erson, and hundreds of tourists visit 

 these places every year and render homage to 

 these venerable monarchs of nature. 



Even the least human of mankind, in many 

 cases utterly devoid of the finer sensibilities 

 of feeling, seem to have a peculiar regard 

 for great majestic trees, and it is said that 

 Napoleon, that imperial vandal, showed re- 

 spect for them. When building the wonder- 

 ful road over the Simplon Pass that he might 

 with less diiEculty get his devastating army 

 into Italy, he ordered his engineers to swerve 

 from the straight and direct line so as to 

 avoid injuring a giant cypress at Somma in 

 Lombardy. This tree, 106 feet high, and 20 

 feet in circumference, is one of the oldest 

 trees in Europe. Its age has been estimated 

 at 1,950 years. 



The Parliament Oak 



The famous Parli.iment oak, under wliiiti 

 met the first English Parliament in which 

 the Commons took part in 1295, is one of 

 England's most beloved trees. Tyrrel's oak 

 still marks the spot where Eufus, one of the 

 sons of William the Conqueror, was slain, 

 and is regarded highly by the English. At 

 Holwood, England, tliere is an old tree known 

 as the Wilberforee oak with a large limb ex- 

 tending out from the trunk forming a natural 

 settee. While seated on this limb it is said 

 William Pitt and William Wilberforee first 

 discussed the abolition of slavery in the pos- 

 sessions of England more than a century ago. 

 Famous for Size and Age 



There are no trees in the world which can 

 compare, cither in point of .size or age, with 

 the beautiful and wonderful redwoods of 

 California. Many of the trees still standing 

 were veritable giants of the forest when 

 Columbus made his famous voyage of discov- 

 ery. The largest redwood in the United 

 States is on the north bank of the Tule Eiver 

 near Bear Creek, California. This giant 

 measures 140 feet in circumference. A more 

 interesting tree is the Dead Giant redwood in 

 Tuolumne Grove, which had a girth of 119 

 feet. The Indians had built their camp fires 

 against this tree so long that its trunk be- 

 came hollowed out like a chimney. Finally 

 when the road builders came they cut through 

 the stump and built a highway by means of 

 which coaches and wagons pass through the 

 lieart of the tree without difficulty. 



Several years ago a hotel man with an eye 

 for bizarre effects converted a gi-ove of red- 

 woods between San Jose and Santa Cruz into 

 an inn. He hollowed out ten immense trees, 



the largest of which was 63 feet around, and 

 fitted them up as dining-rooms, drawing- 

 rooms, parlors and sleeping apartments. 



One of the highest trees in California is in 

 the Calaveras grove; it reaches a height of 

 325 feet and is known as the ' ' Keystone 

 State. ' ' The state of California now owns 

 the Mariposa grove, embracing hardly four 

 per cent of the area on which the big trees 

 grow, and its two square miles of territory 

 are protected against cutting. Other forests 

 of the state are in private hands and the 

 giant trees famous for their size all over the 

 world are rapidly being cut down for com- 

 mercial profit. 



Two Big Austr.4.lian Trees 

 Although the' redwoods of California are as 

 a class the largest trees in the world, reach- 

 ing as they do an average height of 250 feet, 

 there are specimeus scattered throughout the 

 world which are of even greater size. In the 

 Dandenong district of Victoria, Australia, 

 there is a eucalyptus tree 430 feet high. The 

 trunk, sixty feet in circumference, towers 380 

 feet before giving off a single branch. An- 

 other Australian giant is a fig tree which 

 stands on the banks of the Johnstone River 

 near Brisbane. Three feet from the ground 

 it has a girth of 150 feet and at a height of 

 55 feet, where it branches, it has a circum- 

 ference of 80 feer. 



The Oldest Trees in the World 

 The dragon-tree of the Canary Islam^is 

 remarkable for its extreme age. Individual 

 members of the family are believed to be 

 the oldest living vegetable organisms in the 

 world. The age of one tree in particular has 

 been much written about — the once famous 

 dragon-tree of Tenerift'e, and it was estimated 

 to be from four to six thousand years old. 

 This giant was over seventy feet in height 

 and survived intact until the year 1819, when 

 a wind storm broke off one of its largest 

 limbs and a second storm in 1867 stripped 

 the trunk of all its branches and left it stand- 

 ing alone. The tree takes its name from the 

 reddish fluid it exudes, known as dragon's 

 blood, found in the sepulchral caves of the 

 islanders and supposed to have been used by 

 them in embalming the dead. At one time 

 it was an important article of export from 

 the Canaries and has never fallen entirely 

 into disuse. 



The World-Famed Plane Tree 

 On the Island of Cos iu the ^gean sea 

 there stands, carefully guarded, a huge plane 

 tree, measuring 18 yards in circumference. 

 The tree is surrounded by a raised platform 

 breast high, doublless built to support the 

 trunk after it had become weak with age. 

 The limbs arc also supported by braces. 

 Close by the tree is a marble bench, said to 

 be the chair of Hippocrates, the Father of 

 Medicine, and it is supposed that he taught 

 the art of healing from this seat. He was 

 born at Cos 460 B. C, so that some idea of 



the age of the tree is gained from this fact. 

 It is estimated that the tree is more than 

 2,000 years old, and the late Dean Farrar of 

 England stated that it is probable that un- 

 der the shade of this tree Sts. Peter and 

 Paul rested. 



A Fireproof Tree 

 A tree called the rhopala, a native of Co- 

 lombia, South America, is fireproof, and the 

 hottest fire can not burn it. It is a veritable 

 salamander in the vegetable world, and has 

 been known to have survived fire which laid 

 waste great areas, old and young trees, un- 

 derbrush, weeds, everything but the rhopala. 

 II is an ugly plant, small and scraggly, and 

 has a wild and desolate appearance. Its abil- 

 ity to resist fire is said to be due to the 

 structure of the bark, the outer layer of 

 wliich, to a depth of half an inch, is formed 

 of dead cells and fibers. This makes an in- 

 combustible coat, which not only will not 

 burn itself, but keeps the fire from the living 

 inner parts. 



The World 's Largest Tree 

 To Sicily must be given the credit for hav- 

 ing the largest tree in the world. It is 

 known as "The Chestnut Tree of a Hundred 

 Horses," and is situated at the foot of 

 Mount Etna. Its five enormous branches, 

 each as large as an ordinary tree, issue from 

 a trunk which is 212 feet in circumference. 

 A hollow in its trunk is large enough to ad- 

 mit a flock of sheep. The name of the tree 

 originated from the story that Queen Joan 

 of Aragou with her nobility and their 

 retinues once took refuge from a violent 

 storm under its spreading branches. 



Some Freak Growths 

 An elm tree growing originally on the left 

 l;ank of a small stream near Enys in Corn- 

 nail, England, was overthrown by a severe 

 storm. The tree fell directly across the 

 stream, but it diil not die but took root again 

 on the other side, and three trunks have 

 sprung up at this point. The main stem, 

 with a girth of ten feet, forms a natural 

 living bridge. 



At an elevation of four thousand feet 

 above sea level, near the baths of Alliaz in 

 Switzerland, stands a linden supposed to date 

 from the time of Charles the Bold. This 

 tree would attract attention because of its 

 great size if for no other reason, as it has a 

 trunk thirty feet in circumference which 

 sends off horizontal branches about a yard 

 from the ground. The branches do not con- 

 tinue in a horizontal direction, but have 

 turned upright and then form seven trunks 

 parallel to the main stem. The most peculiar 

 feature of the growth, however, is that the 

 two largest side trunks are connected again 

 with the main trunk by subquadrangular 

 branches like girders. 



The Age of Trees 



Among scientists and students of botany 



in Europe there is not a little contention as 



to the great age attributed to various famous 



trees. The German Forest Department has 



