•530 THE UNIVEKSE. 



Black Sea has been the subject of remark, and the botanists 

 of our clay have proved that what ovir forefathers said 

 was in no way exaggerated. 



Men were almost inclined to disbelieve the account of 

 Phny, who states that in his time there was in Lycia a 

 stout thriving plane-tree in the trunk of which was seen a 

 vast grotto eighty-one feet in circumference, the whole 

 extent of which had been tapestried by nature with a green 

 and velvety hanging of moss. Licinius Mutianus, governor 

 of the province, charmed with the delicious coolness of 

 this rural hall, gave a supper in it to eighteen guests 

 from his suite. After the orgy they transformed the scene 

 of their festivity into a dormitory, and comfortably passed 

 the night there. 



This fact has been fully confirmed by modern travellers. 

 De CandoUe relates that according to one of them, there 

 still exists in the neighbourhood of Constantinople an 

 cnormor;s lime-tree, the triuik of which is C[uite as ample 

 as that of which Ave have been sjieaking. It is 150 feet 

 in circumference, and also presents a cavity 80 feet in 

 circuit. 



The Rev. J. Eay, an English clergyman Avho wrote a 

 valuable work on botany, speaks of an oak existing in his 

 time in Germany which was of such dimensions that it 

 had been transformed into a citadel. To confine ourselves 

 more strictly to the truth, let us just say that its interior 

 served as a guard-house. We may here mention another 

 tree of the same kind, still growing in Normandy, and 

 which, in contrast to the other, has been consecrated to 

 piety. This is the chapel oak of Allouville, in which there 

 is an altar dedicated to the Virgin, where on certain days 

 mass is said. The ample hollow of this tree not only 

 furnishes an oratory, but above this a sleeping-room has 



