170 DESCRIPTION OF 



stadt as the city "near the Great Linden." In a poem 

 written in 1408, it is described as growing near the gate of 

 the city, its branches being supported by sixty-seven pil- 

 lars. In the year 1664, there were eighty-two, and in 

 1832, one hundred and six of them. They were built of 

 stone, and erected just as they were required, in accordance 

 with the increase in the horizontal growth of the branches. 

 The oldest inscriptions on these pillars bear the respective 

 dates of 1558, 1562, and 1583, with the name and escut- 

 cheons of those who erected them. In the year 1832, the 

 stem of this tree was, at a height of six feet above the 

 ground, thirty-seven feet six inches in circumference. It 

 must, therefore, have been from seven hundred and fifty to 

 eight hundred years old, at the lowest estimate. Since 

 1832, it has suffered so much by tempests, that it is now 

 almost, comparatively speaking, a complete ruin. 



Walnut trees, also, occasionally reach a great age. 

 There is one in the Baidar Valley, near Balaklava, in the 

 Crimea, which is at least a thousand years old. It yields 

 annually from eighty thousand to one hundred thousand 

 nuts, and belongs to five Tartar families, who share its pro- 

 duce peacefully amongst themselves. 



Cedars are yet found on Mount Lebanon, in Syria, sup- 

 posed to be the remains of the forest which furnished 

 Solomon with timber for the Jewish Temple, three thou- 

 sand years ago. They were examined by Belonius in 1550, 

 who found them twenty-eight in number. In 1696, Maun- 

 drell counted only sixteen ; and in 1818, according to Dr. 

 Richardson, there were still seven of them left. There can 

 be no doubt as to the great age of these trees. Maundrell 

 mentions the size of one of them, which was thirty feet 

 six inches in circumference, and one hundred and seven- 

 teen feet in the spread of its boughs. 



There are Oaks now growing in England which were 

 planted before the time of the Norman conquest, in 1066, 

 and which are therefore more than eight hundred years old. 



The Yew trees (Taxus baccata) are still older. One of 

 these trees, located at Fountain's Abbey, near Bipon, in 



