96 SIZE AND LONGEVITY OP TREES. 



De Candolle has remarked that this longevity of the baobab ia 

 made the more surprising by the softness and liability of its wood to 

 decay. But again, it must be considered that the great diameter of 

 the trunk, in relation to the height, gives the tree a stability which 

 is possessed by no other — by enabling it to resist violent gales of 

 wind. 



It strikes me that there may very well be some mistake in Adan- 

 son's estimates of the age of the baobab. When we see such irregu- 

 larity in the growth of trees of the same species planted in the same 

 soil, little reliance can be placed on any deductions drawn from the 

 size of the trunk when the concentric rings cannot be counted. In 

 proof of this I here give the measurements of two baobabs planted in 

 1821 in the Botanical Garden of French Guiana. In 1842 these 

 trees were found : — 



feet. feet. 



No. 1. Length of stem from ground Diameter of the base 5.41 



to first branches 7.70 Do. at origin of branches 4.23 



«„ o Tv> QQR Diameter of base 2.63 



"°-'*'^^ • ^'^ Do. at origin of branches 1.48 



In the tree No. 2 the branches were puny and nowise in relation 

 with the size of the trunk. 



The bald cypress {taxodium distichum) is a tree that is very 

 abundant in Mexico, and in the southern parts of the United States. 

 At Chapultepec there is one of these trees called the cypress of Mon- 

 tezuma, which tradition says flourished in the reign of that prince. 

 In 1831 the tree was still vigorous, and its trunk was 41 feet in cir- 

 cumference. There is another cypress near Oaxaca, under the 

 shade of which Fernando Cortez is still reported to have rested ; the 

 trunk of this tree is upwards of 39 feet in circumference, and it is 

 105 feet in heiglit. Michaux measured several taxodiums in the 

 Floridas which approached these two in their dimensions. 



We have only uncertain data in regard to the age which palms 

 may attain to ; their sizes, however, are well known. In Egypt, 

 according to M. Delille, the date-trees are generally about 65 feet in 

 height. In the Andes of Quindiu several ceroxylons were measured, 

 the trunks of which were from 195 to 230 feet in height ! Martius 

 assigns the following as the extreme dimensions of the palms of the 

 Brazil-s : from 75 to 127 or 128 feet in height, by a diameter of from 

 6 to about 12^ inches. 



Among several palms {arica oleacera) planted in the Botanical 

 Garden of Cayenne in 1821, the tallest twenty years afterwards was 



