
          I lately had the good fortune to get hold of some long extracts
 from the last work of Decandolle [De Candolle] on vegetable Physiology this I met
 with in the foreign Quarterly Review No. 32 April 1833 American Ed [Edition]
 no. 2 In this I met with some excellent things, but these I shall 
 not attempt to name to you as I suppose you have the work.
 The table on the age of trees p [page] 1007 Dec. interested me greatly
 There does not appear to be any thing there met with satisfaction
 respecting American trees. I was lately talking on this subject
 with a person of much [curious?] information he told me he 
 considered the Hemlock (Pinus Canadensis) as the largest lived tree
 of the American forest, and furnished me with the following
 fact about 40 years ago he said (1834) a large Hemlock was cut
 down at Gransvill Mass [Gransville Massachusetts] when he counted the [crossed out: the?] rings and from the 
 number he found the tree must have been fifteen hundred years!!
 Some of the [added: concentric] rings he said were so small they were not thicker than
 his nail If these observations [there?] are to be depended upon this 
 tree in point of [crossed out: durability?] [added: age] will make some approximation to
 the Yew of Europe.


 I was lately speaking of large trees to Mr E F Johnson an Engineer
 formerly Professor of Math & N Phil [Mathematics & Natural Philosophy]  at the Mil [Military] Academy here
 He named a Butternut tree on the N [North] Bank of the Mohou [Mohawk] 3 1/2 
 miles East of Herkimer Village 12 feet in Circumference 6 feet 
 from the ground, the branches cover an [a] horizontal area of
 7300 square feet being 96 feet diameter both ways (that is
 at right angles)
 Within 2 1/2 miles West of Herkimer VIllage is an apple tree
 10 feet in circumference 6 feet from the ground.
        