Chap. 85.] 
THE AGE or TEEES. 
429 
veneer for covering others, are the citrus, the terehinth, the 
different varieties of the maple, the box, the palm,^^ the holly, 
the holm-oak, the root of the elder, and the poplar. The alder 
furnishes also, as already stated,^"* a kind of tuberosity, which 
is cut into layers like those of the citrus and the maple. In 
all the other trees the tuberosities are of no value whatever. 
It is the central part of trees that is most variegated, and the 
nearer we approach to the root the smaller are the spots and 
the more wavy. It was in this appearance that originated 
that requirement of luxury which displays itself in covering 
one tree with another, and bestowing upon the more common 
woods a bark of higher price. In order to make a single 
tree sell many times over, laminae of veneer have been de- 
vised ; but that was not thought sufficient — the horns of ani- 
mals must next be stained of different colours, and their teeth 
cut into sections, in order to decorate wood with ivor}^, and, 
at a later period, to veneer it all over. Then, after all this, man 
must go and seek his materials in the sea as well ! For this 
purpose he has learned to cut tortoise-shell into sections ; and 
of late, in the reign of ]^ero, there was a monstrous invention 
devised of destroying its natural appearance by paint, and 
making it sell at a still higher price by a successful imitation 
of wood. 
It is in this way that the value of our couches is so greatly 
enhanced ; it is in this way, too, that they bid the rich lustre of 
the terebinth to be outdone, a mock citrus to be made that 
shall be more valuable than the real one, and the grain of the 
maple to be feigned. At one time luxury was not content 
with wood ; at the present day it sets us on buying tortoise- 
shell in the guise of wood. 
CKAP. 85. (44.) — THE AGE OF TKEES. A TEEE THAT WAS 
PLAl^^TED BY THE EIEST SCIPIO AFEICANUS. A TEEE AT 
EOME FIVE HTJNDEED YEAES OLD. 
The life of some trees might really be looked upon as of 
infinite duration, if we only think of the dense wilds and 
It is singular. Fee says, to find the wood of the palm, and that of the 
poplar, which are destitute of veins, enumerated among those employed for 
veneering. In c. 27. 
According to Adanson, the haohab will live for more than six thou- 
sand years. 
