62 THE TREES AND SHRUBS [LECT. 



Pliny so naturalized on the Continent, that even 

 the Morini, a nation of Belgic Gaul on the shores 

 of the British ocean, were taxed for the privilege of 

 enjoying its shade. 



The size which these trees had attained in the 

 time of Pliny was remarkable. In Lycia the cavity 

 in the interior of one of them formed a species 

 of house, 81 feet in width, and had been fitted up 

 with seats, in which, it is added, the pro-consul of 

 the province, Licinius Mucinus, entertained eigh- 

 teen persons of his retinue at a banquet. 



Dr. E. D. Clarke also describes a marvellous tree 

 of the kind in the Island of Cos ; and another 

 in the Straits of Thermopyla?, " of unknown anti- 

 quity, self-sown in its origin, and one of many 

 that may have flourished upon the spot ever 

 since the Lacedaemonian soldiers were seen at the 

 fountain combing their hair, and amusing them- 

 selves with gymnastic exercises." 



Probably, however, the magnificent trees of this 

 description now existing on the shores of the Bos- 

 phorus, called the Seven Brothers, where, it is said, 

 Godfrey de Bouillon, with his army of Crusaders, 

 in 1096, encamped, might surpass in beauty and 

 interest all those instanced by the writers of an- 

 tiquity. 



The largest of them is 90 ft. in height, and 

 150 in circumference, indicating at the usual rate 

 of growth of this tree, perhaps 1,500 years of 

 duration. 



Pliny mentions also, in the Island of Crete, an 



