MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



knowledge on these subjects, if he could take 

 time from Iiis fields and his books. 



Cowper, we remember, well indicates, in his 

 affectionate apostrophe to the old " Yardly 

 Oak," which had fallen into decay, not only his 

 knowledge of the physiology of trees, but, iu 

 the following lines, shows his estimate of the 

 value of that best of all timber for ship-building : 



" Time wp.s, when, settling on thy leaf, a fly 

 Could shake thee to the root — and time ha.s been 

 When tempests could not. At thy tu-mest age 

 Thou had.^t witliiu thy bole solid contents, [deck 

 That might have ribbed the sides and planked the 

 Of some rta^rsed admiral : and tortuous arms. 

 The shipnTij,'lit'8 darling treasure, didst present 

 To the ibur-quartered winds, robust and bold, 

 Warped into tough knee-timber, many a load ! 

 But the ax spared thee." 



Shall we not gratify man}' readers, and carry 

 them back to well-remembered youthful days 

 and feelings, by introducing here the last verse 

 of Campbell's " Beech-Tree's Petition" — " Oh 

 leave this barren spot to me " ? 



" Thrice twentj- summers I have seen 

 The sky grow bright, the forest green ; 

 And many a wintry wind have stood 

 In bloomless. tri.iitless solitude, 

 Since Childhood in mj' pleasant bower 

 First spent its sweet and sportive hour — 

 Since youthful lovers in my shade 

 Their vows of truth and rapture made, 

 And on my tnink"s sur\'iving frame 

 Carved many a long-forgotten name. 

 Oh ! by the sighs of gentle sound 

 First breathed upon ttis sacred ground — 

 By all that Love has whispered here, 

 Or Keauiy heard with ravished ear — 

 As Love's own altar, honor me : 

 Spare, woodman, spwe the beechen tree ! " 



DecandoUe, one of the most celebrated botan- 

 ists of modem times, has paid great attention to 

 the mode alluded to above, for ascertaining the 

 age of trees by counting the concentinc circles. 



Humboldt con.siders a certain Boabab tree of 

 Africa the oldest organic monument of our plan- 

 et; and Adanson, a distinguished botanist, has, 

 by ingenious calculation.s, ascertained its age to 

 be 51.50. Examples of the species have been 

 seen, it is said, which, with a trunk ninety feet 

 in circumference, were only twelve feet in 

 bight. A still larger was seen by Mr. Golberiy 

 in the valley of the two Gagnacs in Afnca. It 

 was thirty-four feet in diameter. The flower, 

 says tlie account before us, is of the same pro- 

 poitions as the tree. A Tree of this species 

 has lately attracted the notice of Mr. Wise, 

 our Minister at Rio, and is the subject of a 

 letter to Mr. Markoe, Secretarj- of the Nation- 

 al Institute. There is a Cj-press in Mexico 

 which is said to be one hundred and seventeen 

 feet in circumference, and which tlie younger 

 DecandoUe considers to be even older than 

 the Boabab of Adan.son. The Yew is sup- 

 posed to be the oldest tree in England, where 

 some are grovN-ing which are confidently be- 

 lieved to be much older than the introduction of 

 Chri.stianitv. The Yewof Braboum Churchyard, 



1310) 



in Kent, has attained the age of liOOO years ; but 

 that, says Chambers, at Hedsor, in Bucks, sur- 

 passes all others in magnitude and antiquity. — 

 It is in full health, and measures above twenty- 

 seven feet ; consequently, according to Decan- 

 dolle's method of computation, which we have 

 not taken room to describe, this Yew has reached 

 the enormous age of 3-240. In all likelihood, 

 this is the most ancient specimen, says our au- 

 thor, of European vegetation. 



But without having time or space for half the 

 train of thoiight lighted up by the letter of our 

 friend, who could so much better do justice to 

 the subject, we must recur once more to the taste 

 for floriculture and tree-culture, displayed in and 

 around Saratoga, to pay a slight tribute to those 

 who have promoted it. 



Very- little inquiry led us to regard, as among 

 those who had been the most prominent in this 

 praiseworthy employment, Mr. Alexander 

 Walsh, of Lansingburgh, Col. S. Young, a 

 most enlightened and powerful promoter of the 

 cause of Education, Doctor Clarke, Mr. David- 

 son, Mr. Marvin, of the U. States Hotel, and the 

 Messrs. Put.vam of the Union House, and others 

 in that beautiful village. The gi-ounds of the 

 United States Hotel there are distinguished by 

 the extent and cleanliness of the lawnx, shaded 

 by the Linden, the Sugar Maple, the Mountain 

 Ash, and other beautiful trees, while the taste of 

 the proprietor of the Union, has besides orna- 

 mented his with an assemblage of sweet flowers, 

 enough in variety and character to satisfy even 

 the fanciful demands of Mrs. Hemans, for all the 

 purposes designated in the beautiful lines — 

 " Bring flowers — fresh flowers." Thus 

 she says : 



" Bring flowers to the captive's lonely cell — 

 They have tales of the joyous woods to tell. 



•' Bring flowers fresh for tfie bride to wear ; 

 They were bom to blush in her shining hair. 



'• Bring flowers — pale flowers — on the bier to shed ; 

 A crown for the brow of the early dead. 



Closing the utterance of her enthusiastic devo- 

 tion at the shrine of Flora, by this beautiful 

 invocation : 



"Bring flowers to the shrine, where we kneA rn prayer. 

 They uie Natures otfering. tlieir place is th-erc ; 

 They speak of hope, to the faintine heart, 

 Willi a voice of promise ; they come and part ; 

 They sleep in dust, tliroiigh the wintry hours ; 

 They break forth in gloiy — bi-ing flowers— bright 

 flowers." 

 There is a Larch, growing in the neighbor- 

 hood of Saratoga Lake, so nearly resembling the 

 European as to make it difficult to distinguish be- 

 tween them. There seems to be a .sort of capri- 

 cious sporting in-egularity in its fashion of send- 

 ing out its minor branches single here or tliere, 

 without rule or uniformity, which is at once un- 



