190 LIFE OF A TREE, 
mortal bodies shall slumber until the morning of 
the Resurrection. This Yew-tree is supposed to 
be about two thousand six hundred years old. 
The most ancient Yew in England is in the 
churchyard of the village of Braburn in Kent. 
In 1660, this venerable tree was fifty-eight feet 
nine inches in circumference. At present, if it still 
exists, it must be about three thousand years old! 
As the voyager to Eastern India sails past 
Cape de Verd (literally, the Green Cape), he 
discovers, even while yet far from land, numerous 
great masses of vegetation which clothe the Cape 
in thick profusion, and from the verdant look 
they communicate to it, have in all probability 
suggested its title. These masses of green are 
enormous trees, known as Adansonias or Baobab 
trees. They were first discovered by a French 
traveller of the name of Adanson, and have 
been called after him. Truly they are of an 
enormous size! Adanson was astonished at their 
proportions, and still more so at what he thought 
was their probable age,—five thousand one 
hundred and fifty years. Some of the trunks 
had a diameter or cross-measurement of thirty 
feet, and a circumference of ninety. Other 
