508 THE UNIVERSE. 



species, the death of which seems rather to depend upon 

 fortuitous circumstances than on the fact of age. 



The life of animals is quite ephemeral compared to that 

 of our trees. Minute investigations have thrown consider- 

 able light upon the chronology of many of them. 



The pine and great chestnut can assuredly extend their 

 existence to a term of 400 or 500 years. In the island of 

 Teneriffe are found many venerable pines and enormous 

 chestnut-trees, which in all probability were planted there 

 by the Conquistadores at the commencement of the fif- 

 teenth century, the epoch of the invasion of this island. 

 The former, the Pinus Canariensis, are distinguishable from 

 the others, owing to the conquerors having in their piety 

 decorated them nearly all with little madonnas, which are 

 still seen suspended to their boughs. 



The lime-tree of Morat, planted at Fribourg on the day 

 of the celebrated battle, is one of the oldest trees in Europe. 

 This glorious event in the history of Switzerland having oc- 

 curred in the year 1476, the venerated tree, which is encir- 

 cled by a colonnade, and of which the aged branches are 

 upheld by a framework of wood, must be now 400 years 

 old. 



The fir attains a still greater age. In some of the most 

 ancient forests of Germany, situated on the summit of the 

 Wurzelberg, in Thuringia, as many as 700 annual layers 

 have been counted on some of the trees cut down there. 



The olive-tree, so revered in ancient Greece, and which 

 inspired such beautiful verses in the tragedy of " (Edipus at 

 Colonus," by Sophocles, reached a much greater age, accord- 

 ing to the ancient myth. Pliny even asserts that in his 



