THB BEAtON WHY. 309 



He shall oe like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his 



fruit in season : his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth 



shall prosper." PSAIM i. 



tho Zamang del Guayra, a species of mimosa, the pendant branches of tho 

 hemispherical head having a circumference of upwards of 000 feet. The 

 Adansonia, or baobab of Senegal, though attaining no great height, rarely more 

 than fifty feet, has a trunk with a diameter sometimes amounting to 34 feet ; 

 while the Pinus Lambertiana, growing singly on the plains west of the Eockj 

 Mountains, has been found 250 feet high, 60 feet in circumference at the base, 

 4^ feet in girth at the height of 190 feet, yielding coues 11 inches round, and 16 

 long. The Ficus Indlcus, or banian tree, sending out shoots from its horizontal 

 branches, which reaching the ground take root, and form new stems till a 

 single tree multiplies almost to a forest, has been observed covering an area of 

 1700 square yards. 



1214. From the number of concentric zones observed in a transverse section 

 of the stems De Caudolle advances proof of the following ages : 



Elm 835 years. 



Cypre&s about 350 



Oheirostemon 400 



Ivy 450 fc 



Larch ....'.... 576 , 



Orange 630 



Olive 700 



Oriental Piano 720 and upwards. 



Cedar of Lebanon 800 



Oak 810, 1080, 1500 



Lime 1076; 1147 



Yew 1214, 1458, 25S8, 2830 



Taxodium 4000 to 6000 



Boabab 5150 



1215. Admitting, with Professor Henslow, that De Cmndolle overrated the ages 

 of these trees one-third, they are examples of extraordinary longevity. Yew 

 trees upwards of 700 years old remain at Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire, as there 

 is historic evidence of their existence in the year 1133. But a yew in the church- 

 yard of Darley-in-the-Dale, Derbyshire, is considered by Mr. Bowman as 2000 

 years old. 



1216. The cryptogamous plants afford the most numerous examples of wide 

 diffusion. <A. lichen indigenous in Cornwall, sticta aurata, is also a native of the 

 West India Islands, Brazil, St Helena, and the Cape of Good Hope ; while 3i 

 lichens and 28 mosses are common to Great Britain and Australia, though the 

 general vegetation of the two districts is remarkably discordant. Some spci:u-s 

 of endogenous plants are also widely distributed, the PMeum alpinum of 

 Switzerland occurring without the slightest difference at the Strait of Magellan, 

 and the quaking grasses of Europe in the interior of Southern Africa. But only 

 in very few instances are the same species of exogenous plants met with in 

 regions far apart from each other ; and generally speaking, in passing from one 

 country to another, we encounter a new flora ; for if the same genera occur, tlu 

 species are not identical, while in distr cts widely separated the genera aro 



1217. The cryptogamic plants, mosses, lichens, ferns, and fungi, are to tho 

 whole mass of phaenogamic vegetation in the following proportions in 

 districts: Equatorial latitudes, deg. to 10 deg.; on the pains l-25th on th. 

 mountains, V5th ; mean latitudes, 45 deg. to 52 deg. t -. higi latitudes, 67 de*. 



