174 DESCRIPTION OF 



soon be extinct, as is further evinced by their slow repro- 

 duction. Indeed, these giants of the forest are so marked 

 in their rusty habits from their present associates, that we 

 can hardly view them in their present relations, except as 

 links connecting us with ages so lon^ past, that they seem 

 but reminiscences of an eternal bygone. They seem to 

 require but the process of petrifaction to establish a com- 

 plete paleontological era."* 



But the Baobab {Adansonia digitatd) surpasses even the 

 trees of California in grandeur and antiquity. It is the 

 oldest vegetable monument on earth. Its stem is only 

 from ten to twelve feet in height, but of immense propor- 

 tions, for it is thirty-four feet in diameter. This colossal 

 circumference is an absolute necessity; because, from its 

 summit it unfolds so vast a leaf-crown, that it can only be 

 supported on such a massive foundation. The main branch 

 rises perpendic«larly to a height of sixty feet, and from it 

 branches extend themselves to a distance of from fifty to 

 sixty feet horizontally on all sides ; so that they form a 

 noble leaf-crown, whose diameter is more than one hundred 

 and sixty feet, giving to a' single tree the appearance of a 

 whole forest. The leaves of the Baobab are palmate, and 

 forcibly remind us of the Horse-Chestnut, — being divided 

 to the leaf-stalk. It is covered with great Malvaceous-like 

 flowers, which droop on their peduncles. The fruit is 

 about the size of a small gourd. 



In its native country, this tree bears a name which signi^ 

 fies " a thousand years ;" and, contrary to what is generally 

 the case, this name expresses what is, in reality, far short 

 of the truth. Adanson noticed one in the Cape de Verd 

 Islands, off" the coast of Africa, which had been observed 

 by two English travellers three centuries earlier ; he found 

 within its trunk the inscription which they had graven 

 there, covered over with three hundred woody layers, and 



* See "Reports of Explorations and Surveys, to ascertain the most prac- 

 ticable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to 

 the Pacific Ocean," Vol. IV. 



