ss a. 
ah ots 
The Forest Trees of Wiltshire. P 163 
winds of that stormy region? Yet, even in this case reason must 
give way, for unless King Davin’s dictum that “all men are liars,” 
is to be taken in its fullest sense, the general truth of the state- 
ments concerning them cannot be doubted. Other parts of the 
world furnish very large trees. Africa has the Baopas, the 
greatest circumference of which is stated to be eighty feet, but 
then its trunk is not above fifteen or twenty feet high, with an 
enormous round head, so uniform that it is equal balanced on all 
sides. Trees of immense size are also found in many other parts 
of the world.—The Cypress in Central America:—The Pranz, 
one of which at Bukukdére, on the European shore of the Bos- 
phorus, measured a hundred and forty-one feet in circumference at 
the base, in 1831.—The Pinus Doverasi has been found of the 
height of two hundred and thirty feet, with a trunk fifty feet in 
circumference at the base; and a Pinus LamBerriana, two hundred 
and fifteen feet long, and fifty-seven feet in circumference at the 
base :—both these on the banks of the Columbia river, in North 
America. Then, coming nearer home, Sicily has its famed “‘ Castagno 
de Cento Cavalli,—the Chestnut of a hundred horses,”’—being 
large enough to contain that number: be that as it may, the trunk 
is said to measure two hundred and four feet in circumference. 
But this last is not, and from the description of it, never was a 
lofty tree. It is the height of the “ Father of the Forest,” more 
than double that of the “ Douglasii,” and not the size of the trunk 
of the Wellingtonias that excite so much wonder and incredulity, 
To add to that wonder, these trees are said to stand on high ground, 
and in the open. Were they growing in the rich soil of some very 
deep dell, protected all round, or on almost all sides from the blasts 
of rude Boreas, the case would be very different. Nevertheless, 
full belief in the general truth of the accounts given by so many 
eye-witnesses, is firm and unshaken in the mind of the writer. 
In conclusion, the writer begs to say a few words more on the sub- 
ject generally. A more pleasing one to the lover of nature cannot 
be; and not only pleasing but instructive and elevating as well. 
Where can more rational pleasure be found than in a ramble in a 
forest or in a park, or through the fields, roads and lanes of a well- 
VOL. X.—NO. XXIX, L 
