APPENDIX C. 137 



" The only certain way of discovering the age 

 of trees of temperate and northern climates is 

 by cutting them down, and counting their an- 

 nual layers, but even this method becomes un- 

 certain with respect to the trees of tropical 

 countries, in which the layers are frequently 

 very indistinct, and in which they are also, in 

 some instances, repeated several times in the 

 year. 



" With respect to the Baobab, if its age be 

 doubtful, its size at least has not been exagge- 

 rated. M. Perottet states in the " Flore de 

 Senegambie," that Baobabs are frequently to be 

 found measuring from seventy to ninety feet in 

 circumference. He promises a memoir on their 

 mode of growth, but the writer of this is not 

 aware if he has yet published it. 



" The subject of inscriptions in trees, (origi- 

 nally cut through the bark, and having their 

 woody portion covered up by successive annual 

 layers) is a very curious one. It has been the 

 subject of numerous memoirs, of which a list is 

 given in the Catalogue of Sir Joseph Banks's 

 Library." 



Although England has no trees whose usual 

 size can compete with that of the gigantic Bao- 

 bab above mentioned, some of her yews and 

 oaks are as worthy of record, and approach 

 more nearly to it in dimensions, than is perhaps 



