386 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 
ing the period at which any specimen (fossil or ligneous) which might 
be discovered, existed. In years of luxuriant vegetation, the quantity 
of ligneous matter deposited will necessarily be infinitely greater than 
in dry or unfavourable seasons; and those annual layers or deposits are, 
in almost every species and variety of wood, obvious to the eye, and 
easy of enumeration. He submitted a diagram representing a section 
of wood, and showing the annual circles, of various magnitude, equiva¬ 
lent to the luxuriance or unproductiveness of the seasons in which they 
were produced: in some cases, following each other in uniformity of 
size and appearance for a series of years, and then presenting one or 
more circles of unusual size; in others, alternating in groups of good 
and inferior vegetation. The truth of this representation he believed 
would be admitted by every practical and scientific man; and by means 
of its application, he had no doubt, were the subject pursued in a spirit 
of patient and scientific inquiry, we should be enabled to connect one 
tree with its predecessor, from the sapling of our own planting to the 
oak of the forest; and from it, through many generations buried in 
our bogs and submarine forests, down to the lowest state of fossil 
organisation; and thus, by a comparison of the plentifulness of one 
year, or years, with the scarcity of others, establish a sequence of time 
extending to a period long anterior to the deluge, and leading to the 
most interesting and important results. To unite this series with some' 
fixed point, was what he wished. It might be difficult to do so, but it 
Was by no means impossible; and he called upon those around him to 
second him with their acquired experience and future observation. He 
would relate a circumstance which, in addition to the proofs advanced 
in the botanical section yesterday, would scarcely leave a doubt as to 
the accuracy with which the age of a tree may be determined by the 
number of its annual rings. In one of the Cape Verd islands there is 
an old (we believe, cork) tree. Three hundred years since, some 
English travellers, attracted by ^ts apparent antiquity, carved their 
names on the bark, and after their return to England made a record of 
the transaction. Recently a party had the curiosity to ascertain if any, 
and what vestige of the incisions remained ; and on cutting their way 
into the tree, found all the names in perfection, removed just three 
hundred rings from the bark. On making an admeasurement of 
the trunk, and ascertaining the number of rings in a given quantity, 
they calculated that the tree had existed upwards of five thousand 
years! ” 
|[We apprehend that this calculation is misreported or misprinted, 
because this is assuming that the tree existed before the general 
deluge: and besides, we have our doubts whether the wood of the cork 
