182 "a few notches on old trees." 



and the baobabs of Africa must have been quite venerable in 

 the times of these Romans, and would have looked down 

 upon them indeed as very novi homines when compared 

 with their hoarj antiquity. There are several yew trees in 

 this country estimated to be between two and three thousand 

 years old, whilst the baobabs of Senegal are reputed to be 

 five thousand years old. 



The Maronites believe that some cedars near the village of 

 Eden, in Lebanon, are the remains of the forest which fur- 

 nished Solomon with timber for the Temple, more than three 

 thousand years ago. 



But, after all, who knows the oldest living tree or trees in 

 the world ? Almost every tree-growing country claims the 

 honour of possessing the oldest or the biggest tree — or per- 

 haps both qualities. Is the oldest tree a yew, a sequoia, a 

 baobab, a banyan or bo-tree, or is it a eucalyptus ? 



We shall have something more to say about this, but I 

 do not expect we shall settle the point. 



The trees which always seem most closely associated with 

 our own country are the oaks, and we will therefore make a 

 " few notches " on them first. 



They are those of which the British nation has always been 

 most proud. They were, so to speak, the idols of the old 

 Druids, and in days more recent and in the good old days of 

 ships, the " wooden walls " of England and " oaks " were 

 almost synonymous terms. For majestic beauty we may 

 w^ell wish they were so now ! What grander sight was there 

 than to see the old Channel fleet in full sail ! 



The oldest existing oak in Grreat Britain is considered to 

 be the Cowthorpe or Colthorpe one, growing near Ribstone 

 Hall (from whence the famous apple takes its name), in the 

 West Riding of Yorkshire. It is not only a remnant of 

 the forests of ancient Britain, but a monarch among the 



