168 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



of it in the last century, " is entirely hollow, and 

 subsists now only by means of its bark, but does not 

 the less cover itself every spring with new foliage. 

 The hollow of this tree is so large that the people of 

 the neighborhood have constructed a house within, 

 with an oven for drying chestnuts, filberts and almonds, 

 and other fruits which they wish to preserve, as is 

 the common usage in Sicily. When they require 

 fuel, they take a hatchet and help themselves from 

 the part of the tree around their dwelling. For 

 this reason this magnificent chestnut is nearly de- 

 stroyed. 



" Some people believe that this colossus consists of 

 several chestnut-trees, which, pressing the one against 

 the other and no longer maintaining their individual 

 bark, have grown together and appear as a single tree 

 to careless eyes. This is a mistake. All the parts, 

 though mutilated by time and the hand of man, be- 

 long to one and the same trunk." 



Careful examination seems really to prove that all 

 these diverging branches have but one system of roots. 

 Moreover, Brydone, w T ho visited it in 1770, states 

 that his guide, following up the traditions of the 

 country, assured him that at a time long past a single 

 unbroken bark covered the trunk all around, although 

 at the present day only a few remnants of it can be 

 seen. Canon Recupero, a Sicilian naturalist, affirmed 

 in the presence of the English traveller and many 

 other witnesses, that the root of this colossal tree was 

 a single one. The best proof in support of the one- 

 ness of this tree is the example furnished by other 



