THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 499 



fifteen to twenty feet in height, is more than a hundred feet 

 in circumference at the level of the ground. This short and 

 robust support is necessary to sustain its incredibly large 

 dome of leaves, the bulk of which is sometimes so great 

 that, seen from a distance, the baobab looks rather like a 

 small forest than a single tree. Its large branches are fifty 

 to sixty feet long. When time has hollowed out the stem 

 of one of these noble trees, the negroes make use of the 

 cavity. Sometimes they turn it into a place of amusement, 

 a rustic retreat where they can smoke their chibouques and 

 take refreshment ; at other times they convert it into a 

 prison. One of these is known of which the Senegambians 

 have converted the interior into a council-hall ; the en- 

 trance is covered with sculptures which point out the high 

 destination reserved for it. 



But the marvel of the vegetable kingdom in respect to its 

 colossal dimensions is assuredly the famous chestnut-tree 

 growing on the lower slopes of Etna. Count Borch, who 

 measured the trunk very exactly, accords it a circumfer- 

 ence of 190 feet. A house which shelters a shepherd and 

 his flock has been built in the immense hollow of its trunk. 

 During the winter the wood of the tree serves the inhabi- 

 tant of this solitary retreat for fuel, and its abundance of 

 fruit supplies him with food during the summer. 



This colossus of our forests, which is called the " Chest- 

 nut of a Hundred Horses,'* owes its name to the vast extent 

 of its foliage. The inhabitants of the country told the 

 painter, J. Houel, " that Jeanne of Aragon, when travelling 

 from Spain to Naples, stopped at Sicily, and, accompanied 

 by all the nobility of Catania, paid a visit to Mount Etna. 



