220 
In considering the age of trees it must be borne in mind that 
the so-called annual rings are entirely unreliable for determining’ 
age. These rings represent periods of growth, but not necessa- 
rily annual periods. A tree known to be eight years from the 
seed has been found to possess thirteen rings. The same may 
be said of the growth of the shoot which is sometimes used to 
measure the age of branches. Every grower of trees from the 
seed is familiar with the fact that the second terminal bud on any 
given shoot is likely to expand during a season with alternations 
of rain and drouth, and one who has grown trees Pein 
from the seed has told me of five successive terminal buds 
pearing one after another on the same shoot during ie present 
season. It is probably true that during the ordinary season the 
average tree will produce but a single growth ring, but it is like- 
wise true that it may produce two and even more the same year. 
It is true that there are traditions of trees that are two thousand 
years old, but it is certain that most of these rest on very hazy 
historical data and in the few cases where the evidence is more 
reliable it still lacks much of certainty. We have cited the 
instance of the old linden at Nuremberg nine hundred years 
old, and there are oaks in the forest of Thiiringen around which 
legends have clustered for eight hundred years, and doubtless 
some of the oaks of our New England openings have an age of 
five hundred, but in these latter cases we must content ourselves 
with estimates. 
tis generally supposed by Americans that the big trees of 
California are the largest trees of the world, but if we can credit 
the best botanical authorities of Australia, there are gum trees, 
species of Hucalyptus, on that continent that are at least two hun- 
dred feet higher than the tallest of the giant redwoods. But 
while the old world may exceed us in this, our oaks, our maples, 
our elms, and our pines are all much finer than the correspond- 
ing species of Europe, so that if we are not first in all things we 
are in many even in our forest productions. 
Lucien M. Unperwoop. 
