368 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
BOTANY. 
CONCENTRIC RINGS OF TREES. 
A. L. CHILD, M. D. 
In the Kansas City Review, Vol. VI, No. 8, an article is published which 
was prepared by me on the " Annual Growth of Trees," in which I announced 
the (to me) surprising fact that the concentric rings of trees, were not a reliable 
index of their age. 
The proof on which that article was based, was confined to four red maples 
of twelve years' growth ; one of which exhibited forty eccentric rings, and the 
others only a few less. 
Having no positive evidence of this singular departure from the world-wide 
and time-honored law, that the age of a tree is known by the number of its con- 
centric rings, I was in doubt as to whether this departure was confined to the 
maple, or might extend to other families. 
The assistance of kind friends has enabled me to accummulate evidence, 
which I think authorizes me to say that the concentric rings are not reHable indi- 
cations of the age of any tree. 
Desire Charnay in North American Review of September. 1881, p. 401, says 
on the subject of this reliability of annual rings " Unfortunately for the argument, 
it is altogether fallacious, and proves nothing. I have put the evidence to the 
test." 
J. T. Allan, Esq., Superintendent of tree-planting for the U. P. R. R., says 
in a letter of July 31, 1883: "Every man who has given any attention to this 
matter of yearly tree-growth knows that the rings are no index to the age of the 
tree." 
Hon. J. J. Wilson, of Bethel, Vt. , an experienced lawyer, and late Senator 
in the Legislature of Vermont, writes me, August iSth, that in a land title suit 
in the Windsor County District Court, held in Woodstock, in June, 1883, where 
claim was based on a certain marked hemlock tree, that a section of the tree in- 
closing the mark was produced in court, and that the rings outside of the mark 
counted up to forty or fifty ; while the same rings followed around to the opposite 
side coalesced and joined till there were but nine or ten. The court ruled them 
out as evidence inasmuch as " they gave no indication, as to the age of the tree, 
or the time since the mark was made." 
Hon. Rob't W. Furnas, of Brownville, Neb., late Governor of the State, 
and a practical forester of almost world-wide reputation says, (commenting on a 
letter of mine): " In reply to the letter of Dr. A. L. Child, in reference to the 
