STEMS AND BRANCHES AND THEIR USES 223 



height of 500 feet. Next to these are the giant redwoods of 

 California, the tallest of which are over 460 feet high. These 

 figures, however, are exceeded by those of the length of some 

 of the woody climbing plants of tropical forests ; thus rotang 

 palms (from which rattan is obtained) are said sometimes to 



Fig. 135. — The "dragon tree" of Teneriffe. A member of the lily 

 family, which, like a few other monocotyledons (including the palms), has 

 a special method of growth in thickness and so is capable of developing into 

 a tree. After Smalian. 



grow to a length of nearly 1000 feet. The tallest trees are 

 not the thickest ones. The diameter of the largest redwoods 

 is not over thirty-five feet ; that of the Austrahan gum trees 

 does not exceed twenty-five feet. The European chestnut, 

 however, though much shorter, may grow, it is said, to a 

 diameter of over fifty feet. A famous bald cypress near 

 Oaxaca, Mexico, has a diameter of a little more than fifty 



