186 LIFE OF A TREE. 
specimens in England, but none of these will 
compare with the great Chestnut of Mount Etna, 
called the Chestnut of the Hundred Horses. 
This tree is described by a modern traveller, 
who surmounted many obstacles in order to 
get to see it. His first idea was that it was 
formed of five large trees grown into one; but 
upon some careful examination, he became satis- 
fied that they had formerly been united into 
one solid stem, and on measuring the hollow 
within, he found it two hundred and four feet 
round! There has been much disputing about 
this great Chestnut; and some men of science are 
still inclined to believe that its size has been 
exaggerated, and that it is really three trees, 
and not a single trunk. It has been said of it 
that it contained as much timber as was necessary 
to build a palace ! 
In a valley near Constantinople an immense 
Plane-tree has been described, which renders the 
tale told of the Lycian Consul not so improbable 
as it might at first sight appear to be. This tree 
is described as being ninety feet high, and the 
circumference of the trunk as one hundred and 
fifteen feet. The trunk is hollow on a level 
