THE GARDENE1 



CHRONICLE. 



been 55 years old when the inscription wa 

 and that about 200 years' growth had been 

 over it. According to the proportions m th 

 ing, the wound had been closed in perhaps 100 years, 

 perhaps in less. Now, if such a rate of healing is 

 observable in oor English trees, we may reasonably 



healing in a plant like a Baobab, always growing, 

 and filled to bursting with the organisable matter oi 

 " she nutritive" from which new wood is incessantly 

 engendered. 



The inscriptions proving nothing, let us next set 

 what M. Duchesne's mathematical calculations 

 are worth. As we have already stated, the single facl 

 is that a Baobab 1 year old is 1 inch in diameter 

 The only inference that can be drawn from this is 

 that if the diameter of a tree is multiplied by 12, 

 the result will be its age. Therefore the trees 6 feet 

 in diameter would be 72 years old, not 210, and 

 those 30 feet in diameter 

 5150. We admit that \ 



the first year's diameter of a Baobab may not ' 

 true representation of the average rate of gro\ 

 it may be wrong in excess, or it may be the 

 trary. Possibly this forest tree may grow fast 





f that soft spongy kind v 



Th.'.'ii; 



■ l--i.l'i..;is rypir-s is w.-!! V 



Mexico, colossal 



is. In the church-yard oi 

 e Tesla, 2| leagues west <,i the city 

 f Oaxaca, there still exists a tree of this kind, which 

 i recorded to have sheltered Cortez and his band 

 uring the Spanish conquest of Mexico. When lasl 

 aeasured by Kakwinski, we are assured by Zvcca- 



yet that f<i'-f.< arc 



that he possessed 



the rate of growth of 



Malesherbes, in France, which gained a foot in d 



meter in 45 years — therefore 45 x 39 should give t 



age of the Cypress of Cortez, viz. 1755 years.* Tl 



result, however, he rejects, because old trees do n 



:' \-c-\ 



.. 



is Cypress, a native of swamps, in which 

 anchors hold it down, will grow much 



France ; it will also grow inces- 

 vinter to arrest its progress. We 

 in of a deciduous Cypress grown 

 of Syon House, for which we are in- 

 cih.lness of the Duke of Northcmber- 

 rate of growth in England is as 



i of Pinus sylvestris, 



~h 



"Thus in these I 



anomalies are presented by the Spruce Fir, 

 also by Pinus Cembra. These statements, 

 ffice to prove that conclusions as to the age 

 and number of annual rings of i 



me yuuug suwns oi a very large size % a ™ 



lent not only in Europe but also in jffi? 

 we have never heard of anv rem*^ i/?**i 



,,.■::■■• k 



To ret 



lui any remedy. i tij T*J 

 trees. An allied sped?'* 



.emany giving a pecuharSi'j! 



are attacked, and which ut^^ 



m, wnicn naa probably be 

 5 before they were planted 



the greater num 

 numbered. Of i 

 tions as possible, i 



•:.'■"'■ • 



quantity of tie jod 

 a portion! in at vari! 

 dbeleftwit^fn, 



, might lea 



100, 200,"or 300 years old." 

 The accuracy of such a statement can 

 t by every one conversant with trees, ai 

 ! a warning to writers not to indulge i 

 out matters concerning which we have 

 jnt data, in almost all the prodigious case 

 read of in books. It is a waste of time to speculate 

 with Von Martius whether the colossal Locust trees 

 Brazil were of the age of H< 

 ild in the days of Pythagoras, or 

 whether they may not have been born with 

 ufficient to know that the antiq 



that of any other living thing. 



5 constantly applied to for remedies against 

 cs of Parasitic Fungi. We know of one 

 , that of bunt, in which there is any tole- 



ay problematic ; and wii 

 i thin sowing, and a not o 





disease pervades, like 



r till the struggl 



up some apparently healthy shoots after Midsummer, 



i are now attacked, and the whole plant 



arifice to the disease. A tuft 



affected by Uredo Hypodytes 



our garden last July, \\ ith'lh ■ \ ' 



what particular species was ii 



jus. The tuft is now green an, 



rishing, but every stem which 



I'l-n^dit 

 ifested with the 



rishing, but every stem which ought to produce 

 blossom is clearly affected by the Uredo, and not a 

 single panicle of flowers will be produced. 



It is all but obvious that, in such cases, any remedy 

 likely to destroy the parasite would be equally de- 

 structive to the parent plant. The most probable 

 prospect of success would be to water the diseased 



an frame certain cutaneoi 

 lave reason to believe that a parasitic 

 fungus is the cause of the disease, yield to an analo- 

 gous treatment, it does not follow that where two 

 onist vegetable tissues are concerned, the para- 

 tissue should yield to a smaller dose of the 

 w *;° uld , prove fatal t0 that ^ the 

 We have been induced to make these 

 l consequence of the transmission of 

 specimens of a Pine infested with ^cidium Pini 



or would De tnrown over a wide space. 

 t materially affect the result. We sho 

 ich to have an opportunity of record!] 



mid be well, perhaps, not t< 



m7.ST' 



;rhaps, not to attempt a 

 ir. The present moment 



in size, or experience a great multiplicatioa a * 

 number, and a similar increase happens to a 

 naturally consisting of several petals. This m 

 happens to almost all vegetables, excepting L»1m»i 



■■ ■• ,-. : : • .■■... 



,1s, as it appears clearly in the double Cbenr,* 

 stamen may be seen adhering to the petaL » 

 aing a number of flowers of the £**»*£ ^ 

 j observed in the centre the place of *••£ 

 ipied by laminae, differing in form *^T^ 



imens, « h «J^b^£* h ^nT^^^ 



stil remained intact, gave me ■w** , '£2 d*» ? 

 iwn at several different times bo»« 

 inated. « i 5U-'- Tk 



I call semi-double, . f s> *» 



SOTSris; suss. $?? 



