LETTER YII. 



69 



house of the Kew Gardens. Lofty as these specimens 

 are (says Sir William Hooker), they are pigmies com- 

 pared with the stature the tree attains in its natiye 

 island, Teneriffe." One growing there is described by 

 Humboldt as the gigantic tree of Orotava" — cen- 

 turies ago an object of veneration to the Guanchos 

 (the aborigines of Teneriffe). A little above ground it 

 measures forty-five* feet in circumference, a girth in- 

 deed which, vast as it is, comes far short of that of the 

 Boabab. The tree, however, seems to be of exceedingly 

 slow growth ; so much so, that according to the tradi- 

 tions of it which have been handed down, it was as large 

 and hollow 450 years ago as it is now. Sir William 

 Hooker observes regarding it, that it is of "incal- 

 culable " age. " Doubtless it and the Boabab (he 

 adds) are among the oldest vegetable inhabitants of 

 our planet." I 



9. The Taxodium Distichum (or deciduous Cypress) 

 seems to be the most gigantic of any on record, and 

 to be second to none in age. Two existing specimens 

 may be referred to — one in the church-yard of Santa 

 Maria de Telsa, near Oaxaca, in Mexico, which has a 

 trunk ninety-three feet in girth; the other, that of 

 Chapultepec, which is said to have a circumference of 

 117 feet 10 inches ! Regarded as of wondrous " 

 magnitude by the Spanish conquerors, this tree of 



* Professor Balfour says seventy feet (Letter ii. 5.) 

 t Popular Guide to the Kew Gardens, 



