CHAPTER X 



CONTAINS A DESCRIPTION OF TREES REMARKABLE FOR THEIR 

 GIGANTIC GROWTH AND GREAT AGE, FOUND IN DIFFERENT 

 PARTS OF THE WORLD. 



EVERY country possesses these vegetable giants, and this, 

 too, from the most different groups of trees. India has its 

 Banyan ; Africa, its Baobab ; Germany, its Linden ; Eng- 

 land, its ancient Oaks and Yews; and California, its mag- 

 nificent mammoth trees, which belong to the natural order 

 Coniferse, and which are upwards of three hundred feet in 

 height. 



A Chestnut tree is now growing on the side of Mount 

 Etna, in Sicily, the stem of which is hollow, and one hun- 

 dred and eighty feet in circumference. It consists, in 

 reality, of several stems, which have grown together at 

 their base, and whose crowns are concealed within one 

 another. It is called by the natives, " Castagna di cento 

 cavalla ;" because a hundred horsemen can find shelter in 

 its interior. The age of this tree is unknown, but its im- 

 mense size proves its great antiquity. It is indeed a noble 

 tree, which has outlived and sheltered successive genera- 

 tions. 



By Neustadt, in the kingdom of Wurtemberg, in Ger- 

 many, stands a Linden tree, which must have been very 

 old in 1229 ; for an old tradition says that the city, which 

 formerly was called Helmbundt, was destroyed in 1226, 

 and was again rebuilt in 1229, "near the Great Linden." 

 This Linden was so remarkable and well known, that for 

 centuries the Germans were accustomed to speak of Neu- 



