145 



was as gigantic in the fifteenth century, as it is 

 at the present moment. It's height appeared to 

 us to be about 50 or 60 feet ; it's circumference 

 near the roots is 45 feet. We could not measure 

 higher, but Sir George Staunton found, that, 10 

 feet from the ground, the diameter of the trunk 

 is still 12 English feet ; which corresponds per- 

 fectly with the assertion of Borda, who found it's 

 mean circumference 33 feet 8 inches, French 

 measure. The trunk is divided into a great num- 

 ber of branches, which rise in the form of a can- 

 delabrum, and are terminated by tufts of leaves, 

 like the yucca which adorns the valley of Mexico. 

 It is this division, which gives it a very different 

 appearance from that of the palm-tree # . 



Among organised beings, this tree is undoubt- 

 edly, together with the adansonia or baobab of 

 Senegal, one of the oldest inhabitants of our 

 globe. The baobabs are of still greater dimen- 

 sions than the dragon-tree of Orotava. There 

 are some, which near the root measure 34 feet 

 in diameter, though their total height is only 

 from 50 to 60 feet But we should observe, 



* I have given, in the Picturesque Atlas which accompa- 

 nies this narrative, (PI. 58 of the folio Atlas,) the figure of 

 the dragon-tree of Franqui, from a sketch made in 1776 by 

 M. D'Ozonne, at the time of the expedition of Messrs. de 

 Borda and Varela. 



t Adanson is surprised, that the baobabs have not been 

 cited by other travellers. I find, in the collection of Gry- 

 siaeus, that Aloysio Cadamosto speaks of the great age of 



VOL. J. L 



