No. 133.] 393 



Oaks in Britain, planted before the Conquest, more 



than 8U0 years old , 



Yew at Fountain Abbey, Ripon : . . 1 ,200 " 



Yews in Crowhurst Churchyard, Surrey ....... 1 ,450 " 



Yew at Fortingai, Perthshire J2,500 to 2,600 « 



Yew at Brabourue Churchyard, Kent 3,000 " 



Yew at Hedson, Bucks, 27 feet diameter 3,200 " 



A Ficus Lidica, (Indian Fig,) or the Banyan, on an island in 

 Nerbudda, (a river in Hindoestan, falling into the Gulf of Cam- 

 bay, in N. lat. 4 degrees, E. Ion. 81 degrees 45 min.,) i^ believed 

 to be indentified with one that existed in the time of Alexander 

 the Great, and which, according to Nearchus, v.as then capable 

 of overshadowing ten thousand men. Parts of it have been car- 

 ried away by floods, but it can now shade seven thousand men, 

 and its circumference, measuring its principal trunk only, is two 

 thousand feet. The chief trunks of this tree greatly exceed our 

 English oaks and elms, in thickness, and are about three hundred 

 and fifty in number. The smaller stems are more than three 

 thousand in number. 



The Maronites believe that some cedars near the village of 

 Eden, in Lebanon, are the remains of the forest which furnished 

 Solomon with timber for the temple, full three thousand years 

 ago. These cedars were visited by Belonius in 1550, who found . 

 them 28 in number. Rawolf, in 1575, make^ them 24. Dan- 

 dini in 1G60, and Thevenot, about fifty years after, makes them 

 23. Maundrell, in 1G96, found them reduced to IC. Pococke, 

 in 179G, found 15 standing. In 1810, Burkhardt counted 11 or 

 22, and Dr. Richardson, in 1818, stales that there are only seven. 

 They must be of great antiquity, seeing that they were counted 

 old three hundred years ago. Maundrell says the largest one 

 measured 36.^ feet in circumference, with 117 feet spread of its 

 boughs. Decandolle gives a list of the ascertained ages of some 

 trees, as follows : — 



Elm, S30 years. 



Cypress, (about) 350 do 



Cheiroitemon hand tree, 4^0 do 



Ivy, 450 do 



