ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 17 1 



Older even than this are the oaks near Croydon, nine miles south of London. 

 If the botanist may judge by the usual evidences of age, these trees saw the 

 glitter of the Roman spears as the legions of the Empire wound their way 

 through the forest-paths or in the green open spaces in the woodland. Now, 

 the Roman legions left Britain fourteen centuries ago, having been summoned 

 home to Rome because the Empire was in danger, in fact, was hastening to 

 its fall. Have fourteen centuries spared these oaks at Croydon ? 



There is a famous yew that must not go without notice in our record of 

 ancient trees. This venerable tree stands in its native field, ever green and 

 enduring, as if the years had forgotten it. Yet it was two centuries old when, 

 in the adjacent meadow, King John signed Magna Charta. If we bear in mind 

 that in 1215 the stout English barons compelled their wicked king to sign the 

 Great Charter, protecting the rights of his subjects, we may conclude that this 

 patriarch yew is at least eight hundred fifty years old. 



The Parliament Oak so called because it is said that Edward I, who ruled 

 England from 1272 to 1307, once held a parliament under its branches is be- 

 lieved to be fifteen hundred years old. If Fine-Ear of the fairy tale could come 

 and translate for us the whispers of these ancient English trees, and tell us ever 

 so little of what the stately monarchs of the wood have seen, what new histories 

 might be written, what old chronicles reversed ! 



On the mountains of Lebanon a few of the cedars famous in sacred and in 

 profane history yet remain. One of these relics of the past has been estimated 

 to be three thousand five hundred years old. The patriarchs of the English 

 forests cannot, then, so far as age is considered, claim equal rank with the 

 "cedars of Lebanon." But the baobab, or "monkey-bread," of Senegal must 

 take the first rank among long-lived trees. Even the "goodly trees " of Lebanon 

 must, if ordinary proofs can be trusted, yield the palm to their African rival. 



An eminent French botanist of the eighteenth century, whose discoveries in 

 natural history are of great interest to the world of science, lived some years in 

 Senegal, and had ample opportunity to observe and study the wonderful baobab- 

 He saw several trees of this species growing, and from the most careful calcula- 

 tions he formed his opinion as to the age of some of these African wonders. 

 One baobab, which even in its decay measured one hundred and nine feet in 

 circumference, he believed to be more than five thousand years old. Truly, 

 the patriarchs of the forest laugh at history. 



THE HEMLOCK TREE. 



HEMLOCK tree ! O hemlock tree ! how faithful are thy branches ! 

 Green not alone in summer time 

 But in the winter's frost and rime ! 

 O hemlock tree ! O hemlock tree ! how faithful are thy branches. 



******** 

 From the German. LONGFELLOW. 



