1Q2 MISC. PUBLICATION 295, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



sequoias, that it should be included, if only by way of comparison 

 (86, 93). 



The Cypress of Tule (Taxodivm mucronatum) , in the Indian village 

 of Santa Maria del Tule, a few miles east of the city of Oaxaca, Mexico, 

 is, in the opinion of Herman Yon Schrenck, consulting timber engineer 

 of St. Louis, Mo., not less than 4,000 years old. According to Dr. Von 

 Schrenck (21) the Tule tree is 140 feet high, and 24 men can barely 

 span it with their arms, its circumference 40 inches from the ground 

 being about 117 feet. He says: 



But the true circumference is hard to measure because of the great uuevenness 

 of the trunk, which is far from being a true cylinder. This uuevenness has 

 caused many persons to believe that this tree is really three trunks grown 

 together instead of one. But most botanists who have viewed it, admitting that 

 this cypress can thus fuse its trunks and even its branches, say that the Tule tree 

 is really a single trunk and that such unevenness is a characteristic of the 

 species. 



Glassman (36) journalist on newspapers of Cincinnati, Washing- 

 ton, Louisville, and New York, said of the Cypress of Tule after a 

 special personal study: 



Following the sinuosities of El Tide's gigantic trunk, one measures its 

 perimeter as 108 feet at a height of 5 feet above ground. So far as known, 

 no organism ever attained such a vast girth. But El Tide's girth is out of 

 all proportion to its height of 141 feet, which is surpassed by trees in more 

 temperate climates. 



In the most recent report on this tree giant. Shamel (79), of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, gives, as his own measurements taken on 

 October 4, 1936: Circumference. 113 feet 4 inches; diameter 36 feet 1 

 inch; and height, 118 feet 7 inches. He says that "while this tree has 

 about the same diameter as the General Sherman sequoia, it is not 

 nearly so tall," and that "its age is estimated variously at from 4.000 

 to 10,000 years." 



Reports have been made of Australian trees 400 and even 500 feet 

 tall, but the tallest eucalyptus now standing is a giant gum {Eucalyp- 

 tus regnant) in Victoria, which is 325 tall (55). 



FREAK TREES 



Strange misadventures sometimes befall trees. Weather, particu- 

 larly wind, is one of their adversaries. Various human, plant, and 

 animal agencies also make living difficult for many trees. 



Freak trees are interesting not only as curiosities but also as 

 illustrating a remarkable capacity for adaptation. A thrifty tree may 

 have grown in an unnatural environment — out of its element, as it 

 were — or have overcome some serious handicap. There is both sur- 

 prise and satisfaction in the study of the way in which it has dealt 

 with its difficulties. 



Thus, the tree with roots embracing stone or ironwork, growing 

 from an old stump or in the crevice of a rock, the Siamese twin trees, 

 G-trees, multiple trees, the prayer-book pine tree and others listed 

 have special interest for students of nature. 



CALIFORNIA 



"A maple tree on a redwood grows," at Scotia. This curiosity of 

 the tree world is admired by all tourists who pass along the Redwood 



