98 SIZE AND LONGEVITY OF TREES. 



was more than 154 feet in circumference. A plane-tree, which 

 grew in Norfolk, and was of the age of thirty-one years, was 7 J 

 feet in circumference, according to Hunter. Cypress-trees often 

 attain to a very great age. In the garden of the palace of Grenada 

 there is one which has stood for more than three centuries. At La 

 Somma, near Milan, a cypress is shown which in 1794 was 17 feet 

 in circumference.* 



Tradition has it that an orange-tree of the convent of St. Sabina 

 at Rome, was planted by St. Dominic in the year 1200 : this tree 

 still exists. The orange-tree of Versailles, known under the name of 

 the Francis /., is rather more than three hundred years old. In 1804, 

 orange-trees were shown in the green-houses of Bonn three centu- 

 ries old, and of which the trunks were more than 30 inches in cir- 

 cumference.! In South America I had myself occasion to observe 

 citron-trees of great age and of very considerable dimensions ; the 

 trunks of several of these trees were nearly -27.' inches in diameter. 



A sycamore-tree of the village c^f Trons, in the Grisons, more 

 than five hundred years old, is at this time between 8 and 9 feet in 

 diameter. 



Many oaks have been described which had survived from eight 

 hundred to one thousand years. Hunter saw one of these trees slill 

 extremely vigorous which was 11' feet in diameter. Evelyn, wiio, 

 in his delightful work entitled Sylva, has given a list of the largest 

 oaks known in his day in England, speaks of one growing in Wel- 

 beck Lane which must have been eight hundred and si.vty years old 

 at least, and the diameter of whose trunk at the base was upwards 

 of 12^ feet. 



The olive is one of the trees that reaches a great age ; Picconi 

 describes one of about seven centuries, and a circumference of about 

 25 feet. 



The cedar of Lebanon grows vigorously and long, especially in 

 soils that are sulficiently loose and permeable. According to M. 

 Paul \'il)ray, of Sologne, the growth of this tree is more rapid than 

 that of the coniferi in general. The cedars whiirb grew on Mount 

 Lebanon, :md were measured by Xauwoltf in 1571, and again by 

 Labillardiere in 1787, are generally allowed to be about the age of 

 one thousand years. De Candolle, however, thinks that this age is 

 exaggerated, and in contradiction with obj^ervalions made on trees, 

 the age of which is positively known. I'he tollowing are a few of 

 the measurements which have been reported by different observers : 



Aff. Ffcl circinifer. Ob»«nr»ri. 



Cf dar of Chelsen H3 1'2 



oll'iiris 40 7 Thouin. 



of ditto W 9.4 Loiscleir. 



" Environs of London 200 16 Hunter 



'* Ditto 11.3 14 Dmo. 



" of .Mount Lebanon GOO 36.4 Muundrcl. 



" of Sologne 30 5 ofVilny 



The yew, as is well known, produces a very hard, close, and en- 



• De CandollB. Ph>»lolofle, p. 994. t ibid. p. WO. 



