STRANGE PLANTS AND THEIR WAYS. 



43 



2. At a little distance the baobab presents the appear- 

 ance of a dome of verdure, covering an area of one hundred 

 and sixty feet in diameter. Adanson, the first naturalist 

 who studied and described this tree, estimated that some of 



The Baobab- Tree 



the'specimens that he observed were at least six thousand 

 years old. This is now considered an exaggeration, though 

 undoubtedly some of them have reached an immense age, 

 rivaling in this particular the big trees of California and 



