2 PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
* 
it is certainly very near the typical form; but still, on the whole, we are inclined to regard it as a representa¬ 
tive species produced by climate, the difference being too great to allow it' to be considered as specifically 
identical. 
History .—We have no information of a palaeontological character specially relating to this variety; but 
we know, from the living specimens remaining, that its duration on the face of the globe must have been 
very long—nay, that the life of the individual specimens themselves must have probably begun at a date 
before the most antient records of the history of man. 
To say that some of the present trees were as old as the Incas is nothing. It would probably be 
strictly true to say that they were, to outward appearance, as old in their time as they are now. It is not by 
hundreds of years that their age must be counted, but by thousands. 
We have already mentioned that the tree at Santa Maria del Tide in Oaxaca is no less than 200 feet in 
circumference. How many years must it have taken to build up such a trunk by the slow process of the 
annual deposit of a slender ring? There is nothing exceptionally rapid in the growth of these trees—we should 
rather call them slow-growing. If we take one line (the twelfth of an inch) of growth to be the average 
breadth of annual deposit, that would give nearly 9000 years as its age. But Zuccarini, in his estimate, 
thinks it safer to assume one-sixth of a line as the average, which would make it six times as old. We 
have seen that'in Louisiana the largest stems of the typical Taxodium distichum which are spoken of, are 
40 and 41 feet in circumference, and the largest number of rings which are mentioned as having been 
counted is 2000. Then, if 40 feet in circumference is equal to an age of 2000 years, 80 feet certainly 
should not mean less than 4000, 117 not less than 6000, and 200 not less than 10,000 years. But we 
know that, after a certain age has been reached, the deposit of wood becomes smaller and smaller as the tree 
gets older: consequently, to take the same ratio as the measure of age for a tree of 117 feet, as one of 40 
feet in girth, would be unreasonable. 
The next largest trees are two, both near the City of Mexico. One in the gardens of Chapultepec, 
which may be seen in the accompanying woodcut figure of that palace—the large tree to the left; and 
the other, the tree under which Cortez passed the night, known as the Noche triste , after the defeat and 
expulsion of the Spaniards from Mexico, of which our coloured plate is a portrait, taken from a photograph. 
Culture. —The culture of this variety differs from that of the type only in the greater care that is neces¬ 
sary on account of its more tender constitution. In England it is rarely met with, and we know of none of 
any size. Professor Koch mentions it as not growing on the Continent further to the north than the south¬ 
west of Germany and south-west of France, viz., at Angers, in the gardens of M. Leroy, celebrated for 
remarkable Conifers. 
Taxodium Montezumas in the Gardens of Chapultepec. 
