290 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



Mexico, bd. i. s. 153.) The two fine Ahuahuetes near Chapultepec, 

 which I have often seen, and which are probably the surviving rem- 

 nants of an ancient garden or pleasure-ground of Montezuma, mea- 

 sure (according to Burkart's account of his travels, bd. i. s. 268, a 

 work which otherwise contains much information) only 36 and 38 

 English feet in circumference ; not in diameter, as has often been 

 erroneously asserted. The Buddhists in Ceylon venerate the gigantic 

 trunk of the sacred fig-tree of Anourahdepoura. The Indian fig-tree 

 or Banyan, of which the branches take root round the parent stem, 

 forming, as Onesicritus well described, a leafy canopy resembling a 

 many-pillared tent, often attain a thickness of 28 (29 English) feet 

 diameter. (Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, bd. i. s. 260.) On 

 the Bombax ceiba, see early notices of the time of Columbus, in 

 Bembo's Historise Venetae, 1551, fol. 83. 



Among oak-trees, of those which have been accurately mea- 

 sured, the largest in Europe is no doubt that near the town of 

 Saintes, in the Departement de la Charente Inferieure, on the road 

 to Cozes. This tree, which is 60 (64 English) feet high, has a 

 diameter of 27 feet 8J inches (29 J English feet) near the ground; 

 21$ (almost 23 English) feet five feet higher up; and where the 

 great boughs commence 6 Parisian feet (6 feet 5 inches English). 

 In the dead part of the trunk a Httle chamber has been arranged, 

 from 10 feet 8 inches to 12 feet 9 inches wide, and 9 feet 8 inches 

 high (all English measure), with a semi-circular bench cut out of 

 the fresh wood. A window gives light to the interior, so that the 

 sides of the chamber (which is closed with a door) are clothed with 

 ferns and lichens, giving it a pleasing appearance. Judging by the 

 size of a small piece of wood which has been cut out above the 

 door, and in which the marks of 200 annular rings have been counted, 

 the oak of Saintes would be between 1800 and 2000 years old. (An- 

 nales de la Societe d' Agriculture de la Rochelle, 1843, p. 380.) 



In the wild rose-tree of the crypt of the Cathedral of Hildesheim, 

 said to be a thousand years old, it is the root only, and not the 

 stem, which is eight centuries old, according to accurate information 

 derived from ancient and trustworthy original documents, for the 

 knowledge of which I am indebted to the kindness of Stadtgerichts- 

 Assessor Rb'mer. A legend connects the rose-tree with a vow made 



