92 ESS A YS. 



longevity. A different conclusion might, indeed, be drawn 

 from the account of an enormous Plane in the valley of Bou- 

 youdereh, near Constantinople, described by Olivier, Dr. 

 Walsh, and others ; the trunk of which is one hundred and 

 fifty feet in girth, with a central hollow of eighty feet in cir- 

 cumference. But the recent observations of an excellent 

 scientific observer, Mr. Webb, leave no doubt that this mon- 

 ster-trunk is formed by the junction of several original trees, 

 planted in close proximity. 1 Along the shores of the Bos- 

 phorus there are many groups of younger Planes, which, for 

 their shade, have been designedly planted in a narrow circle, 

 and their trunks will in time become similarly incorporated. 

 Pliny's Lycian Plane, with a cavity of eighty-one feet in cir- 

 cumference, in which the consul Licinius Mutianus used to 

 lodge with a suite of eighteen persons, may have had such an 

 origin. 



We next notice the Chestnuts, for the purpose of disposing 

 of an analogous case of pseudo-longevity ; that of the famous 

 " Castagno di cento cavalli " ; so named from the somewhat 

 apocryphal tradition, that Jeanne of Aragon, and a hundred 

 cavaliers of her suite, took refuge under its branches during 

 a heavy shower, and were completely sheltered from the rain. 

 According to Brydone, who visited it in the year 1770, the 

 trunk, or rather trunks, — for it then had the appearance of 

 five distinct trees, — measured two hundred and four feet in 

 circumference ; but later and more trustworthy observers 

 reduce these dimensions to one hundred and eighty or one 

 hundred and ninety feet. A hut has been erected in the 

 hollow space, with an oven, in which the inhabitants dry the 

 chestnuts and other fruits which they wish to preserve for 

 winter, using at times, for fuel, pieces cut with a hatchet from 

 the interior of the tree. The separation of a large hollow 



1 Moquin-Tandon, " Teratologic Ve'ge'tale," p. 290. — By the way, al- 

 though De Candolle was not at the tirn^ apprised of the real nature of 

 this Plane, yet he was far too cautious a reasoner to estimate its age at 

 2000 years, as Mr. Nuttall has inadvertently stated (Sylva, i. p. 50). 

 Whoever will read the whole paragraph in the " Physiologie Ve'ge'tale," 

 ii. p 994, will perceive that it will by no means bear that construction. 



