ARBOR DA V MANUAL. 
2 75 
Arranged for the “Arbor Day Manual.” 
FAMOUS AND CURIOUS TREES. 
The Cedars of Mount Lebanon are, perhaps, the most renowned and the best 
known monuments in the world. Religion, poetry and history have all united 
to make them famous. There are about four hundred of these trees, disposed 
in nine groups, now growing on Mount Lebanon. They are of various sizes, 
ranging up to over forty feet in girth. 
A few miles out of the city of Mexico stands a gnarled old Cypress, called the 
tree of Triste Nochc. It was under this tree that Cortez sat and wept on that 
memorable Triste Noche when driven from the Mexican capital by the Indians. 
Another interesting tree to be seen in Mexico is found at Chapultepec, that 
delightful summer resort of the Mexican rulers from the time of the Monte- 
zumas. The tree in question stands a few feet from the entrance way, and is 
draped with the lovely Spanish moss. It is also a Cypress of immense size, so 
large is it that a party of thirteen could just reach around it. It is known as 
the tree of Montezuma, and no doubt he often sat under its shade when rusti¬ 
cating in this lovely spot. 
Sir Philip Sidney’s Oak at Penshurst, which was planted at his birth; The 
Abbot’s Oak, and William the Conqueror’s Oak at Windsor Park, are famous 
trees in English history. 
But beside historical trees there are many others that attract our attention 
from their great size or curious properties. Among the former are the wonder¬ 
ful trees of California, some of which are from three to five hundred feet in 
height'arid twenty to twenty-five feet in diameter. A section of one of these 
trees was at onetime exhibited in San Francisco, in which was a room carpeted, 
and containing a piano and seats for forty people; a hundred and forty children 
once filled the room without crowding. 
Among curious trees may be mentioned the Cow tree, or Palo de Vaca of the 
Cordilleras, which grows at a height of three thousand feet above sea level. 
It is a lofty tree with laurel-like leaves, and though receiving no moisture for 
seven months of the year, when its trunk is tapped a bountiful stream of milk 
bursts forth. It flows most freely at sunrise, when the natives' may be seen 
coming from all directions with pans and pails to catch the milk, which is said 
to have a pleasant, sweet taste, but becomes thick and yellow in a short time 
and soon turns into cheese. 
Then there is the Bread Fruit tree, one of the most curious as well as useful 
trees of the Pacific Islands. The fruit, which is about the size of a Cocoanut, 
should’be gathered before it is ripe, and be baked like hoe-cake. When prop¬ 
erly cooked it resembles and tastes like good wheat bread. 
Another very curious tree is the Candle-nut tree, of the South Sea Islands, 
the fruit of which is heart-shaped and about the size of a walnut. From the 
fruit is obtained an oil used both for food and light. The natives of the Society 
Islands remove the shell and slightly bake the kernels, which they string on 
rushes and keep to be used as torches. Five or six in a Screw Pine leaf are 
said to give a brilliant light. 
