206 LIFE OF A TREE. 
It may be asked, ere we conclude our chapter, 
whether the trees which attain to this extreme 
old age are capable of still bringing forth 
flowers and fruit? Unquestionably they are. 
The return of the fruit-bearing season to the 
rest of the vegetable world, is not less a return 
of vigour to them also, although hundreds, or 
even thousands, of the year-waves of time have 
swept over them. The Apple-tree of fifty years 
of age, if it has not exhausted the soil, bears 
its fortieth load, and may think, so to speak, 
proudly of itself; but the mighty Oak, whose 
bold figure heads our chapter, bears its fruit-load 
too,—and that, not for the fortieth, but five 
hundredth time. The mere circumstance of 
their great age does not necessarily preclude 
the possibility of their ‘still bringing forth 
fruit.” But if the soil in which these old trees 
grow has been drained of those ingredients which 
the tree requires for the production of fruit, 
then of course the old age of the tree will be 
barren and unproductive. 
In proof of this, the following facts may be 
brought forward. There are some Olive-trees 
at Jerusalem, which still bear fruit, of whose 
