204 TAXODINEZH AND ARAUCARINEZ 
(Salisbury Cathedral), has been reached by growing 
trees of both species. 
We have not brought so far the claims of the 
Australian Blue Gum (Eucalyptus Globulus) into the 
arena of competition, since these claims have been 
disqualified on the grounds of exaggeration by 
describers, and their pretensions thereby rather 
discounted. But if the class were for height and 
size, or on the block system in use at fat stock 
Christmas shows in Smithfield precincts, which we 
may put together and call magnitude, the S. Gigantea 
wins, and wins easily. If we were to take it on the 
group system, again the S. Gigantea triumphs. Let 
him therefore take the prize among trees, and be called 
the greatest of them upon the living earth. 
In any competition for longevity—what a lack- 
lustre contest of superiority for anything else than- 
inanimate objects to engage upon !—the Wellingtonia 
looks like a winner all over. It seems to have fairly 
established a claim to an average life of 1,500 years, 
a tenure that emulates that weary, dreary, world- 
without-end existence upon earth, that the unhappy 
Struldbrugs of Luggnagg (encountered by Captain 
Lemuel Gulliver) were compelled to endure. 
There is a specimen trunk of one of them at the 
British Museum, which—if we remember aright—is 
credited with a count of something between 1,300 
and 1,400 rings of annual growth. But, even as there 
were brave men before Agamemnon, it is stated that 
there are extant trees of still greater magnitude and 
age, which must have begun life some considerable 
time before this particular tree saw the light of day. 
About 300 years seems to be the more moderate 
duration of life allotted to our everyday trees. The 
Oak, among our long-established hardwoods,’ is 
regarded as victor in any old-age stakes. Dryden 
has standardized the entrances and exits of its 
