238 



HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



another plant of the same interesting family (Laminariacege), attains to 

 tree-like dimensions and has a stem as thick as a man's thigh. Probably 

 the extraordinary length of some of these ocean Thallophytes is the 

 originating cause of most fables about the sea-serpent. 



To return for a moment to plants with woody stems. There is a 

 Chestnut-tree (Castanea vesca) on Mount Etna, which measures a hundred 

 and eighty feet in circumference ; a Plane-tree (Platanus orientalis} near 



Constantinople with a 



TV* ^-S^r^t.^:/ -I Diameter of nearly fifty 



feet ; and Lime - trees 

 (Tili(L) in Lithuania with 

 a girth of eighty-seven 

 feet ; though none of 

 these offers anything 

 remarkable in regard to 

 height. They are 

 dwarfs, indeed, beside 

 the Eucalyptus-trees of 

 Australia and the Wel- 

 lingtonias of California. 

 There are other vener- 

 able old Limes besides 

 those of Lithuania. At 

 Chalouse, in Switzerland, 

 there stood one of these 

 trees in Evelyn's time, 

 " under which was a 

 bower composed of its 

 branches, capable of con- 

 taining three hundred 

 persons sitting at ease. 

 It had a fountain set 

 about with many tables 

 formed only of the 

 boughs, to which the 

 ascent was by steps, all 



kept so accurately and so very thick, that the sun never looked into 

 it." Another famous member of the same family existed perhaps still 

 exists at Neustadt, in Wurtemberg, whose huge limbs were supported by 

 numerous stone columns. 



But it is not size alone which makes a tree noteworthy, else would the 

 tropical Tumboas or Welwitschias well called mirabilis or " wonderful " 

 find no place of mention here (fig. 297). The Welwitschias are not, indeed, 

 giants of the Vegetable World, but their stems are, none the less, curiosities. 



[E. Step. 



FIG. 294. BRAMBLE AND HONEYSUCKLE. 



The Bramble (Riibus fruticosus) largely climbs by means of stout spines. 

 The Honeysuckle does so by twining. See fig. 295. 



