46 MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



1200. Those in the church yard of Crowhurst, in Surrey, 1400. That of 

 Fotheringall, in Scotland, from 2500 to 2600. That of Braburn, in Kent, 

 3000. But thev describe two other trees of a most remarkable character, viz., 

 the Boaback, estimated at 5160; and the Cypress of Taxodium, in Mexico, 

 which is 117 feet 10 inches in circumference, is still more aged. The ages of 

 the following trees have been ascertained, with as much exactness as historical 

 data, or the principles which have been derived from admeasurement and count- 

 ing the circles of trees of like kind afford:— A Date tree in Egypt, 30t>. 

 Apricot tree in Damascus, 324. Red Oak of Mount Etna, 400. Walnut tree 

 of Balbec, 406. Almond tree in Damascus, 640. Fig tree in Damascus, 648. 

 Olive tree of Palestine, 719. Fig tree of Palestine, 780. Olive tree of Asia 

 Minor, 850. Oak in Louisana, 1000. Sycamore of Heliopolis, 1805. One of 

 Cedars of Mount Lebanon, 1824; another, 2112. A Pelethi (terebinthus) of 

 Asia Minor, 1890. The celebrated Chesnut of Mount Etna, 2660. The 

 Sycamore of Bosphorous, 4020. — Youth's Instructor. 



On the contrasting colours of flowers to produce the best 

 effect: — To demonstrate the theoiy of colours, then, a circular card may he 

 divided into seven compartments, by lines drawn from the centre to the circum- 

 ference, one compartment being painted red, the next orange, the third yellow, 

 the fourth green, the fifth blue, the sixth purple, the seventh violet. Let 

 water-colours or patterns of ribband, of each of these respective colours, be 

 procured, and arranged hi the enumerated order. It will be found, that any 

 one of these colours is producible, by due admixture of the two adjacent 

 colours. The first and third, red paint mixed with yellow, produce the second 

 colour, orange. The second and fourth, orange mixed with green, produce the 

 third, yellow ; the third and fifth, yellow and blue, generate green, the fourth 

 colour ; that and the sixth form the fifth, blue ; the fifth and seventh violet 

 create the sixth, purple ; the sixth and the first, red, constitute the seventh, 

 violet; the seventh and second, orange, terminate in the first, red. What 

 then is the necessary conclusion, but that in the order of prismatic colours, ad- 

 jacent colours are inharmonious; and that harmony results only from union of 

 two colours, distant in order by one intermediate tint. The principle produc- 

 tive of harmony being thus discovered, may receive confirmation, by experi- 

 ment with ribbands of different colours, blended, or with sewing silks twisted, 

 in the preceeding order of arrangement. Yet, beauty resulting not only from 

 harmony, but also from contrast, the next inquiry is, from what principle to 

 produce the latter effect. It is discoverable from the following experiment. To 

 patterns of ribbands or silk, of the seven preceding colours, let white and 

 black be added ; and all be placed in a perpendicular line, the white above tin: 

 red, the black beneath the violet, adapting the numbers to the altered arrange 

 ment, the white being denominated one, the red two, and so on, the violet being 

 marked eight, and the black nine. By advancing black to the side of white, 

 or as it is accounted the absorption or abscence of all colours to the accumula- 

 tion or presence of all, the strongest possible contrast is produced. Violet and 

 punple will also contrast with white, in decreasing ratio ; while the remaining 

 colours produce a very inferior degree of contrast, by no means eligible from 

 their approximation to white, in graduated reflection of light. On a similar 

 principle, the best contrast to black next to white, is red, as the colours rank- 

 ing first of the seven in order of refraction, therefore first in power of reflec- 

 tion; orange is an inferior contrast, but yellow, blue, purple, or violet, from 

 graduated absorption of light, present no contrast to its entire absorption, black. 

 In the same manner red receives no contrast from the two nearest colours in 

 the prismatic gradation, orange or yellow, but from the semi-colour green ; it 

 admits the lowest contrast in blue, higher in purple, or violet, and the highest, 

 as already remarked, in black. The decisive inference then is, that contrast 

 is not producible without passing over two prismatic colours at least. Such 

 being 'fixed laws, constituting the primary principles of the theory of colours, 

 and demonstrable by experiment multifarious and conclusive, their application 

 to landscape gardening and the disposing of flowers m the flower-garden, &c, 

 involves not the slightest difficulty, and solves numerous phenomena. Why, 

 for instance, does verdure, or wbj do shrubs, supply the best relief to gaudy 

 flowers? On account of excel] rast, green bring a sober colour inter- 



