242 



HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



years old, and a Rose-tree at Hildesheim, in Germany, can be traced back 

 to the time of Charlemagne. There are Cedars (Cedrus libani) on Mount 

 Lebanon from six hundred to eight hundred years old ; and Lime-trees 

 (Tilia vulyaris) near Friburg that have existed for one thousand two 

 hundred and thirty years. The Yew-trees (Taxus baccata) of Fountains 

 Abbey are believed to have been in a nourishing condition twelve centuries 

 ago ; " the Olives (Olea oleaster') in the Garden of Gethsemane were full- 

 grown when the Saracens were expelled from Jerusalem ; and a Cypress 



(Cupressus sempervirens) 

 at Somma, in Lom- 

 bardy, is said to have 

 been a tree in the time 

 of Julius Caesar. Yet 

 the sacred Bo-tree (Ficus 

 religiosa) [at Anaraja- 

 poora] is older than the 

 oldest of these by a 

 century, and would 

 almost seem to verify 

 the prophecy pro- 

 nounced when it was 

 planted, that it would 

 ' flourish and be green 

 for ever.'" It was 

 under a Bo-tree that 

 Gautama reclined when 

 he passed through the 

 crisis of his ministry ; 

 and Buddhist super- 

 stition sees in that 

 event the origin of the 

 quivering of the Bo- 

 tree's heart-shaped 

 FIG. 293. THE GREENDALE OAK, WELBECK. 



Believed to be over fifteen hundred years old. A former owner had a passige 

 cut through the bole to allow his carriige to pass through. 



leaves. Even the patri- 

 archal giant of Anaraja- 

 poora is not so ancient 



as the older' Wellingtonias, however, some of which were lusty millenarians 



when that veteran was a baby ! 



Here let us pause, though not for want of matter to carry us farther. 



The topic, indeed, is inexhaustible. Even in a subject so apparently tame 



and dry as the stems of plants, how much there is to interest and inform ! 



How infinite in variety, how wealthy in resource, how wonderful, is Nature 



whichever way we turn, on whatever class of objects we fix the eye ! 



How many curious facts morphological and biological have been before 



