THE LONGEVITY OF TREES. 93 



trunk into independent portions, appearing like the remains 

 of as many distinct trees, is not in itself improbable. The 

 ancient Yew in Fortingal churchyard, Scotland, presents 

 a striking instance of the kind. Indeed, Brydone's guide 

 assured him " that, by the universal tradition and even testi- 

 mony of the country, all these were once united in one stem ; 

 that their grandfathers remembered this, when it was looked 

 upon as the glory of the forest, and visited from all quarters ; 

 though, for many years past, it had been reduced to the ruin 

 we beheld. We began to examine it with more attention, 

 and found that there is an appearance that these five trees 

 were once really united in one. The opening in the middle 

 is at present prodigious, and it does indeed require faith to 

 believe that so vast a space was once occupied by solid tim- 

 ber. But there is no appearance of bark on the inside of 

 any of the stumps, nor on the sides that are opposite to one 

 another. ... I have since been told by the Canon Ricupero, 

 an ingenious ecclesiastic of this place, that he was at the ex- 

 pense of carrying up peasants with tools to dig round the 

 4 Castagno di cento cavalli ' ; and he assures me, upon his 

 honor, that he found all these stems united below ground into 

 one root." l 



It appears, however, that Brydone has not fairly represented 

 the worthy Canon Ricupero's opinion ; for he thought it prob- 

 able that these present trunks were offshoots from the per- 

 sistent base of a more ancient stem ; a conclusion which is 

 fully sustained by the observations of several competent nat- 

 uralists, such as Duby, 2 Brunner, 3 and Philippi. 4 Every one 

 knows how readily the Chestnut will throw up shoots from 

 the root ; and Philippi says it is a general custom in Sicily 

 to cut them down after they have attained a considerable 

 size, when the new stems that are thrown out from the base 

 shortly become trees again. Other considerations would pre- 



1 " Tour through Sicily and Malta." 



2 De Candolle, " Phys. Veg.," ii. p. 992. 



8 " Excursion through the East of Liguria, Sicily, and Malta." 

 4 " Ueber die Vegetation am ^Etna " ; in "Linnrea,"vii. p. 727 ; and in 

 "Comp. to Bot. Mag.," i. p. 90. 



