182 LIFE OF A TREE. 
Exogens have the best chances of the longest 
life, and Endogens the worst; because in the 
former there is nothing to forbid their increase 
to any size whatever, and in the latter there is 
a decided limit set by their singular mode of 
growth, and the hard and resisting nature of 
the outer case of the stem. 
Some astonishing instances of vegetable old 
age are on record.* John Evelyn, who used 
to be very much attached to trees, gardens, and 
country things in general, has mentioned several 
astonishing instances in his famous book called 
Sylva.” We will not quite vouch for the 
perfect accuracy of all that he relates, but it 
will perhaps be interesting to most of our readers 
to be made acquainted with some of these vege- 
table marvels. Thus he tells us that one of the 
Consuls and Governors of Lycia was in the habit 
of feasting his whole retinue in the hollow of 
a great Plane-tree. This enormous tree is said 
to have had a room in it of eighty feet in cir- 
* For the method of ascertaining the age of trees, refer back to 
p- 103. It must be added, however, that too much stress must not be 
laid upon the number of rings as an index of the age of the tree in all 
instances, 
