204 TAXODINE^ AND ARAUCARINEiE 



(Salisbury Cathedral), has been reached by growing 

 trees of both species. 



We have not brought so far the claims of the 

 Australian Blue Gum (Eucalyptus Globulus) into the 

 arena of competition, since these claims have been 

 disqualified on the grounds of exaggeration by 

 describers, and their pretensions thereby rather 

 discounted. But if the class were for height and 

 size, or on the block system in use at fat stock 

 Christmas shows in Smithfield precincts, which we 

 may put together and call magnitude, the S. Gigantea 

 wins, and wins easily. If we were to take it on the 

 group system, again the S. Gigantea triumphs. Let 

 hirn therefore take the prize among trees, and be called 

 the greatest of them upon the living earth. 



In any competition for longevity — what a lack- 

 lustre contest of superiority for anything else than 

 inanimate objects to engage upon ! — the Wellingtonia 

 looks like a winner all over. It seems to have fairly 

 established a claim to an average life of 1,500 years, 

 a tenure that emulates that weary, dreary, world- 

 without-end existence upon earth, that the unhappy 

 Struldbrugs of Luggnagg (encountered by Captain 

 Lemuel Gulliver) were compelled to endure. 



There is a specimen trunk of one of them at the 

 British Museum, which — if we remember aright — is 

 credited with a count of something between 1,300 

 and 1,400 rings of annual growth. But, even as there 

 were brave men before Agamemnon, it is stated that 

 there are extant trees of still greater magnitude and 

 age, which must have begun life some considerable 

 time before this particular tree saw the light of day. 



About 300 years seems to be the more moderate 

 duration of life allotted to our everyday trees. The 

 Oak, among our long-established hardwoods, is 

 regarded as victor in any old-age stakes. Dryden 

 has standardized the entrances and exits of its 



