14 



LETTERS ON TREES. 



Eucalyptus, Taxodium distichum, Pinus Lambertiana, 

 Hymenaea Courbaril, species of Csesalpinia and Bom- 

 bax, the Mahogany-tree, the Banyan, the Tuhp-tree, 

 the Oriental Plane, Limes, Oaks, and Yews." * And 

 again — The age which trees attain has not been fully 

 determined : some live for many centuries." f 



5. As regards the size of trees, Professor Balfour 

 observes — " Many coniferous trees, as the Larch, the 

 Scotch Fir, the Norway Spruce, the Weymouth Pine, 

 the Red Pine, Douglas' Pine, Lambert's Pine, the 

 Norfolk Island Pine, and other Araucarias, have stems 

 varying from 100 to 200 or more feet in height. Dico- 

 tyledonous forest trees in Britain, such as the Oak, some- 

 times attain the height of 120 feet. Forest trees, on 

 the Continent and in America, are sometimes 150 feet 

 high. Monocotyledonous stems, such as those of Palms, 

 are usually unbranched, and their height is sometimes 

 150 or even 180 feet. Acotyledonous stems, as those 

 of species of Alsophila, Dicksonia, and other Tree- 

 ferns, attain a height of fifty or sixty feet." % " Stems 

 often attain a great thickness. The stem of the 

 Drao'on-tree of Orotava is seventv feet in circum- 

 ference ; that of the Boabab has a circumference of 

 ninety feet. Some Cedars of Lebanon at the present 

 day have a girth of forty feet. Chestnut-trees have 

 occasionally a circumference of sixty feet, and trees of 



* Class-Book of Botany, p. 667. f Ibid, p. 669. 



X Ibid, pp. 436-438. 



