236 



HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



pterodactylus, of plesiosaurus and ichy thesaurus ; but the Vegetable AVorld 

 has its giants now. Think of the Wellingtonias (Sequoia) of California, in 

 their sheltered valleys five thousand feet above the level of the sea, with 

 stems three hundred feet and more in height, and ninety, one hundred, or 

 even a hundred and twenty feet in circumference. Think of the mighty 



Eucalyptus-trees of 

 Western Australia, 

 rising from the glens of 

 the Warren Biver and 

 the deep recesses of the 

 Dandenong, and pierc- 

 ing the sky four and 

 five hundred feet up 

 trees that might look 

 down upon the spire of 

 Strasburg Cathedral, or 

 cast their shadows over 

 the Great Pyramid ! * 

 Think of the great 

 Banyan - tree of the 

 Nerbuddah, with its 

 three hundred and 

 twenty main trunks and 

 three thousand smaller 

 ones, covering an area 

 of two thousand feet 

 a giant which shelters 

 beneath its umbrageous 

 arms a host of Custard- 

 apple and other fruit 

 trees. Think, too. of 

 the Silk-cotton-trees 

 (Bombax ceiba) of Yuca- 

 tan, with stems so large 

 that in some cases fifteen 

 men, with arms ex- 

 tended, can scarce 

 embrace a single trunk ; 



and of the lofty Moras of Guiana, of which, as we have seen, Waterton 

 has left so vivid a picture. " Heedless and bankrupt in all curiosity must 

 he be " again we quote from the hero of the Wanderings " who can 

 journey through the forests of Guiana without stopping to take a view 



* A Eucalyptus-tree measured by Froude, the historian, was forty-five feet round at the 

 height of his shoulder (Oceani, p. 127). 



Photo by] [E. Step. 



FIG. 292. GREATER STITCHWORT (Stellaria holostea). 



It climb? the hedge by sticking out its stiff leaves at right angles with the weak 

 stem. EUROPE, w. ASIA. 



