1834.] On the Longevity of Trees. 205 



In the downs of the South of France, the perennial stalks of the Erynxium and 

 the Echinophora lengthen as the level of the ground rises : 1 never could succeed 

 in extracting their real root, and I incline to believe that these plants are some- 

 times contemporaneous with the downs themselves : the runners of the nymphaea, 

 the shave-grass, and various ferns, ought also to furnish examples of extraordinary 

 longevity, but I know no certain method of appreciating it. 



T will even descend to plants of a still lower class. M. Vaucher watched a 

 lichen for 40 years, without observing any sensible change of size. How know we 

 that among the patches of moss which envelope our rocks, some may not be coeval 

 even with their birth or elevation ? and thus in the beds of certain rivers, some 

 weeds may have been existing ever since their waters began to flow ! 



But setting aside these obscure objects, and confining ourselves to the noble 

 trees whose history is a matter of general interest, we must acknowledge the solution 

 of the problem, above proposed, to be full of curiosity. Let us hasten to do it before 

 the progress of industry, the calculations of the timber merchant, the change of 

 property, the development of civibzation, — have united to destroy the objects of 

 our search. The change of religious opinions, and the extinction of many respect- 

 able, though superstitious, feelings, are quickly tending to diminish the veneration 

 that certain old trees were wont to inspire in our ancestors. Let us hasten then to 

 record the dimensions and the dates of those that are still left, and if it be possible, 

 preserve the monuments of ages gone by. I raise my voice on behalf of these me- 

 dals of anticpiity. — I would preserve them from sacrilegious destruction — whether 

 as historical monuments, or as pleasing memorials for the imagination to dwell on. 

 I address myself to the forester, the naturalist, the traveller, the artist ; to all 

 public authorities of all nations : I call on them to measure all the oldest trees in 

 their neighbourhood, by the process I have pointed out. — All who have the power of 

 publishing, should at once commit their researches to the press, the only lasting 

 medium of record in our days ; — to those who have not, I offer to make the record 

 myself in their names, when possessed of the facts, in a work expressly on the age 

 of trees, for which I have collected materials. Those travellers who are not sufficient 

 botanists to give the right name to a tree, should forward a dried specimen of a 

 branch in flower, to which a few specimens of the wood itself may be added, to 

 serve as the means of measuring the ratio of annual increase. 



Note. We have for some time sought to give this highly interesting memoir to our 

 readers in its entire shape, because India seems to be peculiarly adapted for the species 

 of research which the author so zealously enjoins. The ancient forests of India, in all 

 ages venerated and fostered by the Hindus, may still contain trees under which 

 Rama abode in his banishment, or Hanuman assembled his monkey ranks! Let us 

 hasten to determine the age of those within our reach. The celebrated banian-tree in 

 Tirhut, for instance, has lost its parent stem, but taking the outermost offset now be- 

 come a large tree, and tracing the period of its taking root, and applying the same 

 calculation to all the intermediate dependents, we shall doubtless find a very high 

 antiquity for the original tree. 



A young friend in the Midnaptir district has already commenced the inquiry on 

 other trees: the following is an extract from his letter. 



" The largest tree I have met with was & pipal at Chiliana. It measured 53 feet in 

 circumference at the ground, and 37 at the height of 6 feet. I cut into it and mea- 

 sured 7 rings in 3 inches: now at Midnapur the pipal trees give a circumference of 

 6 feet 1 inch on an average of about 15 to 20 years growth, deducting the bark, 11 inches 

 radius; therefore the Chiliana tree in being 6 feet in radius, should be about 100 year? 

 old, which is not much after all." The pipal is a loose grained wood, and easily liable 

 to decay. — Ed. 



