76 ACCOUNT OF 



HENRIETTA. 



Where is that, aunt"? 



MRS. F. 



Between St. Louis and Goree. The tree, which was 104 

 feet in circumference, was situated a few paces from the 

 village, and the assemblies of the people were always held 

 in the enormous cavern formed in its trunk, which cavern 

 was 20 feet high, and 21 in diameter. The form presented 

 by the tree was that of a beautiful arch, flat and elliptical at 

 top, and supported by a column 24 feet high; for it was at 

 this elevation that the principal branches proceeded, and ex- 

 tended round the tree in a horizontal direction to the distance 

 of 50 feet. 



But with regard to its age, how have they made those cal- 

 culations which give it an existence coeval with the Deluge? 



MRS. F. 



By means of two trees which are in the Isles de la Made- 

 leine, and which have their bark inscribed with Dutch names, 

 bearing the date of 1449. Supposing these characters to have 

 been engraved in the infancy of the tree, and comparing them 

 with their dimensions when Adonson saw them, he endea- 

 vored to form a ratio of the progressive increase of the Bao- 

 bab, from which he calculated that a tree of 30 feet in dia- 

 meter must be 5150 years old, and must consequently have 

 survived the Deluge; but, when we hear of such extraordi- 

 nary calculations as this; and that of a modern botanist,* 

 who gives even a greater age to the Deciduous Cypress, | 

 we must suspect there is some great error in the data upon 

 which they have formed such extravagant conclusions. 



MRS. c. 

 I am sure, Mrs. Fortescue, that we are very much obliged 



* M. Alphonse De Candolle. 



t Taxodiura distichum. $ Liudley. 



