THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 433 



circles as they have endured years, and pomted it out to 

 me in all those he had in his shop. And that part which 

 looks towai'ds the north is narrower and its rings are more 

 close and dense than the other. Hence he boasts that 

 he can tell from any piece of wood that may be brought 

 to him, how many years old the tree was, and in what 

 sitiiation it had grown. "^ 



At a later date Adanson the botanist was enabled, by 

 means of observation, to prove how exact were the state- 

 ments of our celebrated writer. An avenue of trees in 

 the Champs-Elysees, planted 200 years previously, being 

 cut down in his time, the same number of woody zones 

 was found in a transverse section of the trunks of each 

 one. This section therefore showed their age. 



These views about growth explain certain phenomena 

 which have often been considered miraculous. 



When, as an imperishable testimony to their constancy, 

 two lovers carve their entwined initials upon the bark, 

 the chisellings on the tree, alas! do not endure longer 

 than their vows. The incessant separation which the parts 

 of this envelope undergo, owing to annual growth, first 

 distorts and then totally effaces the letters. 



But if the engraving penetrate deeper, if the tool pass 

 through the layers of the bark and reach the wood, all 

 goes differently ; the workman has carved upon solid 

 matter. As years only cause the deposit of new woody 

 layers upon the surface of the work, this is preserved in- 

 tact. And when after a long lapse of time the trunk is 

 cleft, the chisellings are revealed to our astonished eyes, 

 in marvellous preservation and in the depths of its layers. 



1 M. Ch. Musset states that the trunks of trees are alwaj's flattened in a 

 northerly and southerly direction, and expand in an east and west plane: a fact 

 which he considers quite in accordance with astronomical laws. 



