98 SIZE AND LONGEVITY OF TREES. 



«ras more than 154 feet in circumference. A plaae-tree, which 

 grew in Norfolk, and was of the age of thirty-one years, was T{ 

 feet in circumference, according to Hunter. Cypress-trees often 

 attain to a very great age. In the garden of the palace of Grenada 

 there is one which has stood for more than three centuries. iVt La 

 Somma, near Milan, a cypress is shown which in 1794 was 17 feet 

 in circumference,* 



Tradition has it that an orange-tree of the convent of St. Sabina 

 at Rome, was planted by St. Dominic in the year 1200 ; this tree 

 still exists. The orange-tree of Versailles, known under the name of 

 the Francis /., is rather more than three hundred years old. In 1804, 

 orange-trees were shown in the green-houses of Bonn three centu- 

 ries old, and of which the trunks were more than 30 inches in cir- 

 cumference.! In South America I had myself occasion to observe 

 citron-trees of great age and of very considerable dimensions ; the 

 trunks of several of these trees were nearly 27| inches in diameter. 



A sycamore-tree of the village of Trons, in the Grisons, more 

 than five hundred years old, is at this time between 8 and 9 feet in 

 diameter. 



Many oaks have been described which had survived from eight 

 hundred to one thousand years. Hunter saw one of these trees still 

 extremely vigorous which was IH feet in diameter. Evelyn, who, 

 in his delightful work entitled Sylva, has given a list of the largest 

 oaks known in his day in England, speaks of one growing in Wel- 

 beck Lane which must have been eight hundred and sixty years old 

 at least, and the diameter of whose trunk at the base was upwards 

 of 12| feet. 



The olive is one of the trees that reaches a great age ; Picconi 

 describes one of about seven centuries, and a circumference of about 

 25 feet. 



The cedar of Lebanon grows vigorously and long, especially in 

 soils that are sufficiently loose and permeable. According to M. 

 Paul Vibray, of Sologne, the growth of this tree is more rapid than 

 that of the coniferi in general. The cedars which grew on Mount 

 Lebanon, and were measured by Nauwolff in 1574, and again by 

 Labillardiere in 1787, are generally allowed to be about the age of 

 one thousand years. De Candolle, however, thinks that this age is 

 exaggerated, and in contradiction with observations made on troes, 

 the age of which is positively known. The following are a few of 

 the measurements which have been reported by different observers 



An. feet circiimrer. Obwrrtrs. 



CedRr of Chelsea 83 12 



" olPHris 40 7 Thou.n. 



" nl'ditio 83 9.4 Loiseletf 



" Environs of London 200 16 Hunter 



" Ditto 113 14 Ditto. 



*♦ of Mount l^sbanun 600 36.4 MaundreL 



" ofSologne 30 5 ofVit«y 



Tbe yew, as is well known, produces a very hard, close, and e» 



• De C&ndoUe, Physiolosie, p. 9M. t Ibid. p. SOB. 



