SYLVAN GIANTS. 273 



It had not only a hollow cave in its trunk, which 

 was capable of holding fifteen persons at dinner, 

 with a proper suite of the emperor's attendants ; 

 but, if I understand Pliny rightly (Lib. xii. 

 c. 1), it had stories also (probably artificial floor- 

 ing) in the boughs of the tree. Caligula used to 

 call it his nest.' * 



These are wonderful examples of giant Planes, 

 and, marvellous as are the recorded dimensions of 

 them, the records are probably reliable. De Oan- 

 doUe mentions, in his ' Physiologic Vegetale,' the 

 recital of an Eastern traveller, who reported the 

 existence of an enormous tree in the valley of 

 Bujukdere, two or three leagues from Constanti- 

 nople, which had a trunk one hundred and sixty- 

 five feet round ! Its hollow interior was eighty 

 feet round ; its height was one hundred feet, and 

 its shadow, it was averred, covered a space of 

 ground representing five hundred square feet ! 

 In America it grows to large dimensions, and one 

 is mentioned by Michaux — found growing on a 

 little island in the Ohio River — that was forty 

 feet in circumference, measured round at five feet 



* 'Forest Scenery,' page 167, 



T 



