154 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



THE AGE OF SOME TREES. 



At Fortingall, in Scotland, there is a yew-tree 

 more than 3,000 years old. In France, at Foullebec 

 (Department of the Eure), a yew measured in 1822 

 appeared to be 1,100 or 1,200 years old. 



Adanson measured at Cape Yert a baobab over 

 ninety feet in circumference ; and by comparing it 

 with younger trees of the same species he was led to 

 believe that this giant was 5,000 years old ; but 

 doubts have since arisen whether the principle of 

 measuring by annual rings can be applied to this fam- 

 ily of trees. Golberg, measured another which was 

 112 feet in circumference, and consequently must 

 have been still older. But the most remarkable is 

 the colossal pine of California (Sequoia), which rises 

 to the height of 300 feet, and is thirty feet in diam- 

 eter. The concentric layers of one of these immense 

 trunks, if correctly measured, prove that their age is 

 6,000 years, which would have made him contem- 

 poraneous with the earliest dynasties of Eygpt. 



In Europe the lime-tree or linden, seems to be 

 capable of living the longest and attaining the most 

 gigantic proportions. The linden-tree of Neustadt, 

 in the kingdom of Wiirtemberg, is a remarkable in- 

 stance. Its magnificent crown measures 400 feet in 

 circumference, and its branches are upheld by 106 

 stone columns. The tree was an old tree in the year 

 1 229, when a great fire destroyed the old town, and the 

 new town was, according to a document still extant, 

 built close to " the big tree." In the year 1558, the 



