AGE OF TREES* 53 



accident or design, appears to have lost its leading 

 shoot, and in consequence has thrown out several 

 collateral branches ; three remain, which have now 

 grown into trees themselves, existing in full vigour, 

 and constituting a whole of much beauty. It is a 

 characteristic specimen of an oak, with all the corru- 

 gations, twistings, furrows, and irregularities, which 

 this tree with a free growth generally exhibits ; ex- 

 panding its three vigorous arms to the Sun of 

 Heaven with a pendent, easy dignity, that seems 

 like an enjoyment of unrestrained liberty. We 

 have no good criterion to regulate our judgment 

 with regard to the age of trees of considerable anti- 

 quity. In young ones the rings of the wood will 

 often afford a reasonable ground for opinion ; but 

 in old trees these marks are absorbed, obscured, or 

 uncertainly formed, so as to be no sufficient guide. 

 In particular cases, such as inclosure of waste or 

 other lands, formation of parks and plantations, the 

 times of planting are sufficiently recorded ; but ge- 

 nerally speaking, neither oral tradition, nor written 

 testimony, remains to indicate the period when a 

 tree sprang up. This oak, however, from all the 

 signs of age that it retains, must have existed as a 

 sapling at some very distant day, and is the most 

 undoubted relic of antiquity in the vegetable world 

 that we possess. 



The elm, and the beech, in age, frequently pre- 

 sent very decided vestiges of a former day ; but 



