101 
Adanson estime par des calculs ingénieux et trés 
plausibles que les Baobabs (the Adansonia) des isles 
de la Magdaleine ont plus de 6000 ans.” 
his Oriental Memoirs, speaks of an Indian fig, the 
Forbes, in 
banyan or burr-tree, supposed to be the same de- 
scribed by Nearchus, commander of the fleet which 
attended the Indian expedition of Alexander the 
Great. This tree, which probably still exists, must 
be at least 2500 years old. 
Offspring, and Care of Progeny. 
In all classes of organized beings, some are more, 
some less prolific than others. Those animals which 
bring to maturity in the aggregate the greatest 
number of progeny, though not producing the great- 
est number from a single pair, are generally the 
prey of those which rear the fewest; and amongst 
vegetables, the most prolific. abundant, and widely 
diffused, are those which afford nourishment to the 
greatest number of animated beings. This remark, 
however, requires much limitation. 
The lion produces commonly four young: the 
sheep less frequently two lambs than one. But 
man’s dominion checks the multiplication of lions, 
and encourages that of sheep; so that the original 
wild race of the latter is uncertain, perhaps untrace- 
able, even from the days of Abel. This observation 
also applies to the bull and cow, as to man’s : protec- 
tion ; but the bos taurus is said to have been for- 
merly wild in Britain, to be still wild in Poland and 
H 3 
