'396 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Dec.  i,  1892. 
CELEBRATED  TREES. 
By  A.  H.  Duncan.* 
As  the  subject  of  Forestry  seems  to  be  one  that 
attracts  considerable  attention  in  the  columns  of 
the  Farming  World,  a reference  to  a few  of  the  more 
famous  tr  es  now  living  may  be  of  interest  to  some 
readers,  and,  as  I have  had  the  privilege  of  personal 
inspection  of  many  of  these,  my  remarks  will  doubt- 
less be  acceptable  to  those  who  prefer  facts  to  fiction. 
These  trees  may  be  classed  thus:  — 
1st. — Those  celebrated  for  their  size. 
2nd. — Those  notorious  for  their  extreme  age;  and 
3rd. — Those  that  have  acquired  fame  for  some 
other  reason. 
Of  those  celebrated  for  their  great  size,  I may 
begin  by  mentioning  the  Plane  tree  in  the  grounds 
of  Kippendavie,  near  Dunblane,  which,  with  a girth 
of  42  feet,  and  a height  of  100  feet,  is  allowed  to 
be  the  largest  of  its  kind  in  Scotland  ; but,  as  most 
of  my  readers  have  probably  seen ' this  tree,  I will 
say  no  more  about  it,  but  will  pass  on  to  what  in 
France  they  consider  their  most  gigantic  trees.  These 
grow  in  Normandy,  and  are  two  yews  of  the 
Haye-de-Routot,  in  the  Eure.  The  largest  of  these, 
although  measuring  30  feet  in  circumference,  is  only 
60  feet  in  height.  Its  hollow  trunk  has  now  been 
transformed  into  a chapel,  but  before  this  was  done, 
it  was  capable  of  holding  forty  people,  and  eight 
musicians  on  one  occasion  played  a piece  therein. 
It  is  supposed  to  be  1500  years  old.  There  is  an 
oak  tree  at  Guerbaville  which,  although  only  250 
years  of  age,  has  attained  a height  of  130  feet. 
In  England  something  better  can  be  shown  than 
this,  and  in  the  park  at  Welbeck  Abbey,  the  seat 
of  the  Duke  of  Portland,  there  stands  the  celebrated 
Greendale  oak,  over  800  years  of  age,  and  measuring 
33  feet  in  girth,  while  its  branches  cover  an  area 
of  2,700  square  yards.  But  these  are  but  as  pigmies 
when  we  come  to  speak  of  me  big  trees'of  California, 
the  “Giant-Sequoias.”  Those  are  divided  into  three 
lots,  namely,  the  Mariposa  grove,  the  Caleveras  grove, 
and  the  King's  River  grove.  In  the  Caleveras  grove 
there  are  27  trees  of  250  feet  or  more  in  height,  4 of 
which  are  upwards  of  300  feet,  the  highest  being  325 
feet.  Of  300  trees  that  were  measured  in  the  Mariposa 
grove,  the  tallest  was  272  feet,  and  in  the  King’s  River 
grove  no  single  tree  reached  the  height  of  300  feet. 
The  celebrated  “King  of  the  Forest,”  when  dis- 
covered by  white  men,  was  prostrate,  already  partly 
decayed,  and  the  whole  top  burned  away,  consequently 
no  one  knows  how  high  it  was  ; and,  although  the 
accounts  published  at  the  time  of  its  discovery  speak 
of  it  as  perhaps  over  400  feet  when  living,  these 
were  merely  guess  work  and  not  proved  to  be  fact. 
I have  stood  inside  the  hollow  trunk  of  the  “King 
of  the  Forest,”  and  have  no  hesitation  in  saying 
that  it  was  the  largest  tree,  in  circumference,  that 
I have  ever  seen.  What  the  measurement  was  I now 
forget,  but  it  must  have  been  immense,  from  the  fact 
that  of  the  2,675  giant-trees  which  are  still  left  standing 
in  California,  the  largest  one  is  exactly  99  feet  in 
circumference,  and  this  is  considerably  smaller  than 
the  old  “King”  was. 
My  readers  may  fancy  that,  with  the  giant  trees 
of  Calfornia,  my  record  of  forest  Kings  has  come  to 
an  end,  but  such  is  not  the  case,  for  in  the  deep 
dense  bush  of  the  Gippsland  district  of  Victoria,  in 
Australia,  there  are  trees  of  the  Eucalyptus  species 
which  would  tower  over  the  Sequoias  were  they  placed 
alogside  of  one  another.  Many  a time  and  oft  have 
I lain  down,  rolled  up  in  my  rug,  and  camped  for 
the  night  under  these  huge  gum  trees,  which  grow 
between  the  Yarra-yarra  and  the  Watts  rivers  in 
Victoria,  and.  looking  up  300  feet  of  clean  and 
branchless  barrels,  have  watched  the  possums  gam- 
bolling and  chasing  each  other,  chattering  as  they 
frisked  about  in  the  light  of  the  pale  cold  moon. 
And  often,  as  I lay,  have  I thought  that  if  one  of 
these  little  creatures  should  happen  to  miss  its  footing, 
and  came  whirling  through  the  air,  down  on  the 
top  of  my  devouted  head,  that  it  would  have  been  a 
bad  day  for  the  possum,  but  an  equally  bad  day  for  me 
These  huge  trees,  although  tremendous  in  height, 
do  not  grow  to  anything  like  the  same  diameter  as 
the  Giants  of  California,  60  feet  being  an  exceptional 
size  in  circumference  for  any  of  these  to  attain. 
But,  although  300  feet  is  a very  usual  height  for 
them  to  grow  to,  there  are  cases  where  they  even 
exceed  this,  such  as  the  one  measured  by  Baron 
Von  Mueller,  at  Neerim,  on  the  Gippsland  railway 
line,  which  proved  to  be  525  feet.  The  late  Mr. 
William  Ferguson,  chief  inspector  of  forests,  has 
also  left  it  on  record  that  he  measued  a fallen  tree 
from  the  butt  to  a point  where  the  top  had  been 
broken  off,  and  the  length  was  485  feet.  With  these 
trees,  the  tallest  in  the  world,  I will  conclude  the 
first  part  of  my  paper,  and  proceed,  secondly,  to 
consider  those  notorious  for  their  extreme  age,  and 
of  course,  I mean  by  this,  the  trees  whose  correct 
age  we  actually  are  acquainted  with,  and  not  those 
like  the  Gaintsof  California,  which,  according  to  some, 
may  or  may  not  be  2000  years  old,  as  no  one  really 
knows  their  age. 
In  the  first  place  there  is  a vine,  at  Hampton  Court, 
which  was  planted  150  years  ago,  and  which  is 
supposed  to  be  the  oldest  vine  in  the  world.  It  is 
upwards  of  150  feet  long,  its  stem  being  32  inches 
in  circumference,  and  in  a good  season,  it  yields  more 
than  3000  bunches  of  grapes,  weighing  in  the  whole 
nearly  one  ton.  They  are  of  the  finest  black  Hamburg 
kind,  and  are  reserved  chiefly  for  the  Queen's  table. 
The  oldest  rosebush  in  the  world  is  at  Hilderheim, 
in  Hanover.  It  was  planted  by  Charlemagne,  and, 
consequently,  is  over  1000  years  of  age.  The  Emperor 
plauted  it  in  commemoration  of  a visit  made  to  him  by 
the  Ambassador  of  the  Caliph  Haroun-al-Raschid,  but 
why  he  should  have  commemorated  this  important 
event  in  so  singular  a manner  has  not  been  handed 
down  to  posterity  by  any  historian.  Such  a visitation, 
in  the  present  day,  would  be  commemorated  by  a 
succession  of  sham  fights,  dinner  parties,  and  un- 
limited speechifying,  and  not  in  the  humble  way- 
adopted  by  Charlemagne.  There  are  various  trees 
in  public  parks  and  in  private  grounds  which  are 
said  to  be  from  1000  to  1500  years  of  age,  such  as 
the  “ Parliamentary  Oak  " in  Clipstone  Park,  London, 
which  is  believed  to  be  1500  years  old,  and  “ Tasso's 
Tree,”  the  famous  oak  under  which  the  celebrated 
poet  spent  the  greater  part  of  the  day  during  the 
last  year  of  his  life,  when  he  had  retired  to  the 
convent  of  Sant  Onofrio,  and  which  tree  was  blown 
down  only  recently,  had  also  a great  age  attributed 
to  it;  the  Cedars  of  Lebanon  also,  a few  of  which 
are  still  standing,  we  know  existed  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  Christian  era,  but  the  oldest  historical 
tree  in  the  world,  the  one  whose  age  is  distinctly 
recorded  in  the  traditions  of  the  sacred  annals  of 
Ceylon,  the  planting  of  which,  in  the  year  288  b.  c., 
was  one  of  the  greatest  events  in  connection  with 
the  Buddhist  religion,  is  the  celebrated  “Bo  Tree,” 
which  is  growing  amongst  tbe  ruins  of  Anuradhapura, 
carefully  guarded  by  the  priests  and  worshipped  by- 
pilgrims  who  come  annually  from  all  parts  of  the 
east  to  do  homage  to  the  “ Invincible,  powerful,  all 
glorious  Bo  Tree.”  Compared  with  its  age,  2180  years, 
the  historical  trees  of  England  and  Scotland,  which 
are  looked  upon  with  veneration,  are  mere  saplings; 
and  the  very  Cedars  of  Lebanon,  and  the  most 
ancient  of  continental  trees,  are  far  younger  than 
this  remakable  tree.  It  received  the  same  homage 
2000  years  ago  as  it  does  now,  and  age  after  age 
the  annals  of  Ceylon  record  the  works  each  suc- 
ceeding monarch  has  executed  for  its  preservation, 
works  which,  although  in  many  instances  very  old 
and  crumbling  away,  can  till  be  seen  and  recognised 
at  the  present  day.  Should  such  a calamity  happen 
as  the  death  of  the  great  “ Bo  Tree  ” of  Anurahda- 
pura,  it  would  spread  consternation  not  only  through- 
out Ceylon,  but  over  India,  Siam,  and  China.  I 
have  stood  beneath  .tbe  spreading  branches  of  the 
“ sacred  pre-eminent  Bo  Tree,”  the  appearance  of 
which  quite  bears  out  its  enormous  age,  and  have 
examined  the  numerous  ancient  and  remarkable 
structures  that  have  been  from  time  to  time  erected 
in  connection  with  it,  and  are  still  standing  as  evidence 
of  its  long  continued  existence,  and  it  seemed  to  me 
as  if  indeed  the  prophecy  at  the  time  it  was  planted 
.t  Formerly  of  R.tngala,  Ceylon — Ed.  T.A, 
