CHAP. I. THE TRUNK. 47 



SUBSECTION IV. 



General Remarks. If trunks are viewed with Surface. 

 regard to their surface they are smooth without 

 any inequality or asperity, as in the Spurge-laurel 

 and Bulrush ; or they are rough and interspersed 

 with rugged points and inequalities ; or beset 

 with stiff bristles, as in common Cow-parsnip and 

 Viper's Bugloss ; or with prickles or thorns, as in 

 the rose and sloe-tree ; or they are rift into clefts 

 and chinks, as in the trunks of old trees. 



In their substance they are fleshy and succulent Substance, 

 like the stem of the common House-leek ; or they 

 are fibrous, as the straw of the Bulrush ; or they are 

 firm and woody, as the trunk of the oak. 



In their size they are to be found of all dimen- Size ex- 



]. . 



sions, from that of the diminutive Draba that sur-i nt he 

 mounts the parched wall, to that of the lofty moun- 



tain Palm that rears its head to the clouds. This Sloane - 

 immense and gigantic tree, the Palma altissima of 

 Sloane, is a native of the West Indies, growing to 

 the height of one hundred and twenty feet,* some- 

 times to the height of one hundred and fifty feet, 

 and even, as it is said, to that of two hundred feet ; 

 being about seven feet in circumference at the base, 

 but gradually tapering towards the summit, and thus 

 forming with its lofty crown of fronds the noblest 

 object of vegetable creation. 



* Sloane's Nat. Hist, of Jamaica. 



