20 



LETTERS ON TREES. 



perly, that is, physiologically, be regarded as old age. 

 Of many of these " oldest inhabitants of the park, or 

 the church-yard, or the forest, much of the trunk may 

 be hollowed out ; many of the larger branches may 

 have been broken off or otherwise destroyed in the 

 course of ages. The sundry and manifold changes 

 of the world" may have shorn them of their glory and 

 left little of them remaining. Still that little evinces 

 as great activity in the vital processes as ever. That 

 is to say, it is the seat of as vigorous a circulation of 

 sap as in its earliest years ; it puts forth and matures 

 leaves, and flowers, and fruit, which are as large and 

 as perfect as in its best days ; it is still forming fresh 

 wood, and having every year additional bulk given 

 to it. 



12. Let one example suffice meanwhile. There is 

 at Allonville, in France, an oak so decayed, that the 

 only support it has is by the outer layers of wood and 

 by the bark. It may be said to stand on stilts. Its 

 trunk is a perfect hollow or cavern ; and some idea, 

 both of the size and age of the tree, and of the extent 

 of its decay, may be formed from the fact, that in the 

 year 1696 its hollow stem was converted into a little 

 chapel of six or seven feet in diameter, wainscotted 

 and paved, and in which Divine service is said to be 

 still occasionally performed. It is computed that this 

 tree, which is upwards of thirty-five feet in girth, 

 must have seen at least from 800 to 900 summers. 



