98 ESSAYS. 
assigns to this noble tree the age of at least five hundred 
years ; —a credible estimate, notwithstanding the girth of the 
tree is somewhat overstated in that account. Its cireumfer- 
ence at the smallest part of the trunk (four feet above the 
ground), — which is always the proper point for measure- 
ment, —instead of from twenty-four to twenty-seven, is only 
twenty-two feet four inches; although near the base, owing to 
the influence of the spreading roots, its girth is considerably 
greater. 
But of all American species, the invaluable Live Oak of 
our southern coasts will probably be found to attain the great- 
est longevity ; although it seldom becomes a very large, or, 
at any rate, a very tall tree. Like the finest European Oaks, 
its branches spread very widely, and contain a prodigious 
quantity of timber. ‘ The trunk of the Live Oak,” says Mr. 
Bartram, in his delightful “* Travels in Florida,” “is generally 
[on the St. John’s River] from twelve to eighteen feet in 
girth, and rises ten or twelve feet erect from the earth ; some 
I have seen eighteen or twenty ; then divides itself into three, 
four, or five great limbs which continue to grow in nearly a 
horizontal direction, each limb forming a gentle curve, or 
arch, from its base to its extremity. I have stepped above 
fifty paces, on a straight line, from the trunk of one of these 
trees to the extremity of the limbs.” 
The younger Michaux mentions a tree felled near Charles- 
ton, whose trunk was twenty-four feet in circumference ; and 
we learn that another individual of still greater size is still 
flourishing on the plantation of Mr. Middleton, near that 
city. According to Mr. Nuttall,! the tree sometimes acquires 
the diameter of eight or nine feet in west Florida. All these 
trees must have attained a great age; for this heavy and al- 
most incorruptible wood is of extremely slow growth. May 
we not hope that some competent observer will collect the 
- requisite information upon this subject, before all the larger 
trunks have yielded to their impending fate ? 
The Olive grows much more slowly than the Oak, and as 
its wood is very compact and durable, it is not surprising 
1 «N, Am. Sylva,” Supplement, i. p. 16. 
