LABGE SIZE OF EXOGENS. 169 



portions at the place where it grew, each of which being 

 numbered, has enabled them to be re-adjusted in their 

 original places, the result of which is, the whole bark of this 

 most magnificent tree appears as if growing on the timber. It 

 measures 31 feet across at the base, and 93 feet in circum- 

 ference ; the original tree was 363 feet in height, its present 

 height is 116 feet, and the bark is 18 inches thick. The 

 Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria excelsa) sometimes grows 

 to 300 feet in height, and Humboldt, describing a specimen of 

 the Pinus Trigona, says, " This gigantic fir was measured 

 with great care ; the girth of the stem at 6^ feet above the 

 ground was often 38 to 45 feet ; one stem was 300 feet high, 

 and without branches for the first 192 feet." 



As the exogens grow by the addition of woody matter 

 to their circumference, of course the older the tree (other 

 conditions being equal) the larger will be the trunk, but as 

 the new wood is added to the outside, the centre loses its 

 vitality and is liable to the attacks of both animal and vege- 

 table parasites, and is therefore constantly found either 

 decayed or totally destoyed ; this is not, however, invariably 

 the case, and many instances are found of wood of a great age 

 remaining sound in the centre At St. Nicholas in Lorraine 

 is exhibited a plank of walnut wood made into a dining- 

 table which is twenty-five feet wide. Besides timber for 

 various useful purposes, this division of the vegetable 

 kingdom furnishes us with both cotton and linen for clothing, 

 and many of the dye-stuffs for ornamenting such clothing, 

 also with many articles of food (although not so prolific in 

 this respect as the Endogense), the potato, most green vege- 

 tables, as cabbages, lettuces, are exogenous, together with 

 such roots as carrots, parsnips, &c. 



To this class of plants belong many of the most beautiful 

 flowers, and all our fruit-trees, not the least important of 

 which is the fig-tree, although the fig can hardly be called 

 a fruit in the strict sense of the word, being a consolidated 

 mass of flowers within a receptacle. The figs of commerce 

 are produced from the Ficus carica, the fruit being dried 

 in the sun ; they form a considerable article of commerce. 

 The celebrated Banyan tree (Ficus indica, fig. 24) is one of the 



