LONGEVITY OF TREES. 5 



of wave-circles is that of the annual wood-circles of a tree, only that 

 on the water we have but an evanescent effect, while in the tree there 

 is new substance and solidity. The mode of growth and the phenomena 

 referred to are denoted by this word " exogenous," which is literally 

 no more than "expansion outwards." 



Very different are the mode of growth and the internal condition of the 

 trees called "endogenous." These show no distinction of bark, and wood, 

 and pith ; they are destitute of branches (except in a few instances) ; 

 and their leaves, which are inconceivably enormous to anyone who has 

 never seen leaves larger than those of English trees, are produced only 

 upon the summit of the stern. They are chiefly represented in the 

 illustrious tropical productions known as palm-trees those soul-moving 

 emblems of the south and east, and in England are only seen in large 

 and costly conservatories, where room can be afforded them to lift 

 their green pride on high. Even then we only see them as juveniles, 

 no possible structure of glass being competent to shelter them when 

 full-grown, except in the case of some of the dwarf kinds. 



It is among the exogenous trees, accordingly, that in England 

 we find our delight. It is these which form the sweet and solitary 

 * arcades of the forest; that are the homes or the resting-places of 

 the birds ; that shelter us from the storm, and temper the heat of 

 the sun ; whose trunks are embossed with tender creepers of green 

 moss, or hidden by the activity of the innumerable and ubiquitous 

 ivy; it is these that are so lovely in their youth, so venerable 

 and patriarchal in their old age ; these that stand still in quiet dignity 

 while we talk of four-score as a wonderful life-time, and for their own 

 part watch the rise and fall even of nations. For the nature of an 

 exogenous tree being to expand and enlarge externally, there is of course 

 no physical limit to the diameter it may attain, or to the number and 

 massiveness of its boughs and branches, or to the multiplication of its 

 twigs and leaves ; and should the lease of life allowed it in the Divine 

 economy be considerable, as happens with certain kinds of mimosa, and 

 with many of the pine and cedar kind, it may go on growing and -> 

 enlarging for ages, and after a thousand years be still in the full vigour of 

 its existence. Hence it is that the grand scriptural image acquires such 

 richness and force "As the days of a tree are the days of my people." 

 Hundreds of trees are standing at this moment in America, some in 

 California, others in Brazil, that were alive when those words were 

 written, and with a grasp upon life and the earth that seems to assure 

 them a period of which they have perhaps no more than passed the 



