THE LONGEVITY OF TREES. 83 
The Talipot Palm, which blossoms but once, and then per- 
ishes, — or the Century plant, which continues in our conser- 
vatories even for a hundred years without flowering, but dies 
when it has ripened its fruit, — may be adduced as cases of 
death by old age. But in its native climes, where our so- 
called Century-plant blossoms in the fifth or sixth year of its 
age, it as uniformly dies immediately afterwards. The result, 
in all such cases, is rather analogous to death from parturi- 
tion, than to death by old age. ° 
This doctrine of the indefinite longevity of trees — that 
they die from injury or disease, or, in one word, from acci- 
dents, but never really from old age — was first propounded 
by the distinguished De Candolle in one of his earliest writ- 
ings,! near the commencement of the present century. It is 
entirely a modern doctrine (unless, indeed, we may suppose 
that Pliny comprehended the full meaning of his words, 
** Vites sine fine crescunt,” which is improbable), and. it is by 
no means surprising that it should have been received with 
incredulity, or vehemently controverted, by those who had 
not taken the pains to understand it. For the a priori con- 
siderations, from which the young Genevan botanist deduced 
his novel theory, were then, in truth, more or less hypotheti- 
eal, and involved some hardy assumptions. They are now, 
however, amply confirmed, or at least so generally admitted 
by all vegetable physiologists, as to give the theory a high 
degree of antecedent probability. But De Candolle proceeded 
to indicate a mode in which its correctness might almost be 
tested by actual observation, and, having accumulated a great 
number of interesting data, he published, in 1831, the memoir” 
which, having been still further augmented, now constitutes 
one of the most interesting chapters of his masterly ‘‘ Physio- 
logie Végétale.” 
If this view be well founded, it is to be expected that dif- 
ferent individuals of the same species should perish at very ir- 
regular periods; and that some should be found to escape all 
1 “Flore Francaise,” 1, p. 22. 
2 “ Notice sur la Longévité des Arbres.” Par Aug. Pyr. De Candolle, in 
the Bibliothéque Universelle, May, 1831. 
