134 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 54 



the earliest record in botany of the phenomenon now known as 



nyctotropism. 



' The Historia Plantarum is not without its chapters on the 



/diseases of trees, and the influences of the seasons upon them'; 



I the proper seasons of the year for felling timber of different kinds ^ ; 



j qualities and special uses of wood of different trees'; but space 



: must not here be given to comment on these economic aspects of 

 the subject. A more philosophic interest attaches to questions of 

 longevity in trees. 



Under the caption of duration (9) he records a number of curious 

 facts, and discusses briefly a question that may arise in reckoning 

 the age of certain trees. He certifies that it is common with 

 orchardists and vine growers of his time to renew, as it were, an 

 old and moribund tree by cutting- it down near the ground, and 

 then training up in its place one of the new shoots that are thrown 

 up from the base of the stump. How, he asks, is the duration of 

 the tree upon this spot to be estimated ? Do the old and new tree 

 constitute two individuals or only one? If the main trunk be 

 essentially the tree, then the new trunk is that of a new individual; 

 and he adds that the very roots of the original tree perish, event- 

 ually, and that the new one now has none other than its own.* 

 Yet individual grape vines the continual growing and fruiting of 

 which during two centuries is perfectly authenticated have in this 

 way been renewed by the cultivator's art, several times over 

 within the two centuries. He finds it a prevalent opinion in the 

 rural districts that all wildwood trees are long-lived and all the 

 domesticated of short duration. This the philosopher does not 

 think well grounded. It is true only in a very general way, and 

 with many exceptions. Some kinds of forest trees live very long, 

 others do not ; and the same may be said of the domesticated, though 

 these, upon the whole, have a shorter period. And, universally, 

 those that fruit copiously have a shorter time of life than the 

 unprolific ; also the kinds of wild trees that affect low and wet land 

 are shorter-lived than those occupying dry and barren ground. 

 Even sweet-fruited and aromatic trees live longer than the sour- 

 fruited kinds, he has observed. On the reputed great ages of 

 certain individual trees still living in his day as well as carefully 

 preserved and religiously venerated — such as the olive tree at 



> Hist., Book iv, chs. 16, 17. 



' Ibid., Book v, ch. i. 



' Ibid., chs. 2, 3, 4, 5. 



' Ibid., Book iv, ch. 14; De Causis, Book ii, ch. 15. 



