48 THE BLANCHES. PART I, 



In our own country Oaks of a great age have been 

 known to measure upwards of forty feet in circum- 

 ference at the base of the trunk, with an elevation 

 of ten or twelve feet without any division. At Col- 

 thorpe, near Wetherby in Yorkshire, there is now 

 growing an Oak that measures seventy-eight feet in 

 circumference close to the ground, and forty-eight feet 

 at the height of a yard. It is said to have begun to de- 

 cline in the reign of queen Elizabeth, and though now 

 much in decay is still likely to stand for many years. 

 And Ad- But the trunk of the Baobab or African Calabash- 



ansonia ...... 



digitata. tree, Adansoma digit at a > is beyond all comparison 

 the largest tree yet known. Adanson in his voyage 

 to Senegal saw a tree of this species that measured 

 seventy feet in height from the root to the top of 

 the branches, the trunk being ten or twelve feet in 

 height by twenty-seven feet in diameter ;* a growth 

 so enormous, that if the fact were not well authen- 

 ticated we should be apt to regard it as altogether 

 fabulous. The trunk of this immense tree is some- 

 times hollowed out and converted into a sort of 

 house, serving for the abode of several families of 

 negroes. 



SECTION III. 



The Branches. 



Defini- THE branches are the divisions of the trunk ori- 

 ginating generally in the upper extremity, but often 



* Fam. de Plant. Prof, ccxii. 



tion. 



