100 THE MOUNTAINS 



the circulation of the sap, and so keeps the 

 rent tree alive. The result is that the 

 original tree becomes two or more trees 

 quite separate, excepting at the roots. 



5. More wonderful yet, this tree-group 

 is not only fruitful, but even so vital that 

 the roots send out sprouts (twice I have 

 found as many as six), and these sprouts 

 in turn grow into trees belonging to the 

 one tree-system. 



6. In this astonishing way, one olive 

 tree, instead of paying its expected tribute 

 to death, overcomes decay and becomes 

 an organic olive community as it were, 

 not merely existing on, but living on, posi- 

 tively flourishing for centuries. Indeed, 

 in the older groves to the north of Bordi- 

 ghera, it is nothing unusual to find a de- 

 cayed and split tree which is as much as 

 three hundred years old ; and in Beaulieu 

 there is one patriarch which, according to 

 both naturalist and historian, is a thou- 

 sand years old. 



If I have succeeded in making clear this 



