round it in all directions; and their extremities being bent towards

by a near inspection, that he can be convinced that the luxuriant verdure proceeds from a solitary stem. The leaves, which closely resemble those of the horse-chestnut, are of a deep green and it is said that Cape Verd (literally, the Green Cape) takes its name from the circumstance of its being clothed with these gigantic trees. The flowers are white and pendent, on drooping flower-stalks of a yard in length, and are extremely large, measuring, when fully expanded, from 4 to 6 inches in diameter. A full-grown Adansonia, clothed with its brilliant verdure and snowy blossoms, must therefore present a most magnificent spectacle; and we can fully appreciate the feelings that prompt the untutored negro to worship under its shade, and hail the opening of the flowers with a pious good-morning. Another consideration connected with the baobab is the great age to which many individuals must arrive, as may be inferred from their enormous bulk. It is no doubt a very rapid grower, for a specimen in the Botanic Garden at Calcutta is said to have attained a circumference of 18 feet in twenty-six years; but when we multiply this ten or twenty fold, and make allowance at the same time for the slower increase of maturity, we can readily believe that many specimens now extant may have witnessed the revolutions of more than 2000 years. Adanson indeed looks upon it as the oldest living monument on the globe; and taking his data from two specimens which he examined in 1761, he calculates that some of the baobabs then flourishing on the coast of Africa might have existed for 5000 years! This is obviously an erroneous calculation, founded on the increase by annual layers, as witnessed in temperate regions-a circumstance which is by no means constant, as there may in the tropics be two, three, or even more layers formed in one year, according to seasonal influences; but even after the necessary deductions, we are compelled to regard the Adansonia as alike the monarch and patriarch of the vegetable kingdom.

Among the many astonishing features of Indian vegetation, the Banyan, or sacred fig of the Hindus, is one of the most curious and beautiful. Its branches bend towards the ground, take root, and thus form separate trees, which successively cover a vast space of ground, and furnish an agreeable and extensive shade in warm climates. Milton thus correctly describes its habit, where he speaks of its leaves as being those of which Adam and Eve 'made themselves aprons :'

The banyan is the Ficus Indica of botanists, and belongs to the Moracea, or fig and mulberry tribe. A specimen is mentioned by Marsden as growing in Bengal, which had fifty or sixty stems, with a total diameter of 370 feet, and which afforded at noon a shadow the circumference of which was 1116 feet. There is another yet more gigantic still standing on the island of Nerbuddah, near Baroach, called the Cubbeer Burr. The tradition of the natives is, that this tree is 3000 years old; and it is supposed by some to be the same that was visited by Nearchus, one of Alexander the Great's officers. The large trunks of this tree amount in number to 350; the smaller ones exceed 3000; and each of these is continually sending forth branchlets and hanging roots to form other trunks. The circumference of this remarkable plant is nearly 2000 feet. Roxburgh states that he found the banyan in the greatest perfection and beauty about the villages on the skirts of the Circar Mountains, where he saw some individuals 500 yards round the circumference of the branches, and 100 feet high; the principal trunk being more than 20 feet to the branches, and 8 or 9 feet in diameter. Though undoubtedly a tree of wonderful dimensions, the banyan must be regarded as a succession of independent stems rather than as a single individual; for it is evident that some of the earlier rootingbranches may exceed the parent_trunk in size, and that any of them being once rooted, would live and send forth new branches in arches and colonnades though the original stem were utterly destroyed.

The Dracena or Dragon Tree is another of those gigantic plants which give character to the vegetation of intertropical countries. It is found abundantly in the East India Islands, in the Canaries and Cape Verds, and along the coast of Sierra Leone. In ordinary cases, the erect trunk of the dracæna does not exceed fourteen feet in height, but divides into a number of short branches, each

ending in a tuft of spreading sword-shaped leaves, pointed at the extremity. The tree is palm-like in its growth, but belongs to the asparagus tribe of Jussieu, or, according to Dr Lindley, to the Liliacea. It does not increase by external layers like the oak and fir, but enlarges after the manner of the palm, and therefore has not a trunk of true durable timber; nevertheless, some specimens have been known to grow to an enormous size, and to endure for many centuries. The most celebrated specimen on record is that of Orotava, in the island of Teneriffe, which in 1799 was found by Humboldt to be 45 feet in circumference, and about 50 or 60 feet in height. The trunk,' says Humboldt, 'is divided into a great number of branches, which rise in the form of a candelabra, and are terminated by tufts of leaves, like the yucca which adorns the valleys of Mexico. It still bears every year both leaves and fruit. Its aspect feelingly recalls to mind "that eternal youth of nature" which is an inexhaustible source of motion and of life.' Though continuing thus to grow, this tree had not perceptibly increased in size during the life of the oldest inhabitant, as its top branches, from the brittle nature of the wood, were constantly being broken down by the winds. In 1819, the greater part of its top was blown down; and in 1822 the venerable trunk was entirely laid prostrate by a tempest. The enormous bulk of this wonderful vegetable was noted so early as 1402 by Bethencourt, according to whose description it was then as large and as hollow as it was found by Humboldt ; hence the latter infers that, along with the Adansonia, the dracæna of Orotava was one of the oldest inhabitants of our globe.

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The Courbarils of the primeval forests of Brazil are thus spoken of by Von Martius: 'The place where these prodigious trees were found appeared to me as if it were the portal of a magnificent temple, not constructed by the hands of man, but by the Deity himself, as if to awe the mind of the spectator with a holy dread of His own presence. Never before had I beheld such enormous trunks they looked more like living rocks than trees; for it was only on the pinnacle of their bare and naked bark that foliage could be discovered, and that at such a distance from the eye, that the forms of the leaves could not be made out. Fifteen Indians, with outstretched arms, could only just embrace one of them. At the bottom they were 84 feet in circumference, and 60 feet where the boles became cylindrical!' We know too little of these vegetable leviathans to give a more minute account; but if they are as Martius describes, they may be justly considered as rivalling the Adansonias both in point of age and dimensions.

Passing from trees of strange habit and growth, only familiar to the inhabitants of the tropics, we shall now advert to some which are common in European forests, and which occasionally attain dimensions little if at all inferior to the baobabs and banyans of India and Africa. Among these we may notice, in the first place,

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the cypress, yew, and cedar, which belong to the Coniferæ, or fir tribe, and which are all remarkably long-lived and enduring. The largest known specimens of the cypress are to be met with in Mexico. At Atlexo, for instance, there is one said to be 76 feet in girth; and another at St Maria del Tuli, which is 118 feet in circumference ! This is larger, certainly, than any of Adanson's baobabs; 'but,' says Humboldt, on examining it narrowly, 'M. Anza discovered that what excites the curiosity of travellers is not a single individual, but three united trunks.' There is, however, at Chapultepec, in the same region, a third cypress, which is said to be 117 feet 10 inches round; and the younger De Candolle considers it even older than any of the baobabs of Senegambia. Michaux, who published a splendid work on the forest trees of America, says that the largest stocks of the cypress are 120 feet in height, and from 25 to 40 feet in circumference above the conical base, which at the surface of the earth is always three or four times as large as the continued diameter of the trunk. In the East, the cypress is the emblem of mourning, and is generally to be found overshadowing with its dark branches the spots consecrated to the dead; and it is owing to the respect which they meet with in such situations that so many gigantic and venerable specimens have been allowed to survive. Nearly allied to the cypress, and applied to the same funereal purposes, is the yew-tree of our own country, which often attains to enormous dimensions. That of Hedsor, in Bucks, is about 27 feet in girth, and is still in full health and vigour; that of Fortingal, in Perthshire, mentioned by Pennant in 1770, was 21 feet; those of Crowhurst, in Surrey, were more than 11 feet; and those of Fountain Abbey, in Yorkshire, well known so early as 1155, about the same dimensions. Respecting the cedar of Lebanon, Maundrell tells us that when he went into the East, a few old trees were then growing on the loftiest parts of the mountains. Measuring one of the largest, he found it to be 36 feet in girth, and III feet in the spread of its boughs. About 18 feet from the ground it divided into 5 limbs, each of which equalled in bulk an ordinary tree. The cedar, like the yew and cypress, is an evergreen, and occupies a pre-eminence over all other trees in the East in point of beauty and duration.

Belonging to the same natural order we may mention the Norfolk pine, or kauri, of the New Zealanders, which occasionally grows to a very large size. Mr Terry, in his recently published work on New Zealand, mentions two extraordinary individuals which he saw on the eastern coast, near Mercury Bay, and which were supposed to be the largest on the island. The available trunk of one, which was cut down and brought to England, was 150 feet in length, and 25 feet in circumference at the base; the other is still standing, and is called by the natives the Father of the kauri. 'Although almost incredible, it measures 75 feet in circumference at its base! The

height is unknown, for the surrounding forest is so thick, that it is impossible to obtain an accurate view of the tree. There is an arm some distance from the trunk, which measures 6 feet in diameter at its junction with the main stem. Some of our own native pines, such as those of Glenmore and Athole, have reached to a great age and size; but they are as mere saplings compared with this 'Father of the kauri.'

The Wellingtonia gigantea, a pine of California, exceeds in size all others of its family, all other trees of temperate climates, and indeed almost all those of the tropics. It is found on the Sierra Nevada, in about 38° N. lat., and at an elevation of 4000 to 5000 feet above the sea. It was discovered in 1850 by a Mr Dowd, who, in hunting deer, came with astonishment into the midst of what is now known as the Mammoth Tree Grove of Calaveras. For several years the trees of this group were supposed to be the only trees of their kind in existence, but other groups were afterwards found in

other localities, and individual trees in different parts of the district. A tree which was felled in the Calaveras grove measured 302 feet in height, and 96 feet in circumference at the ground. It was sound to the centre. It must have been of very great age, and was probably a tree of considerable size in the time of Solomon. Five men were employed for twenty-two days in felling it, which was accomplished by boring into it with great augers, and sawing between the auger holes. When it had been cut through, it remained steadfast in its erect position, till great wedges were driven in, a work of more than two days, when at last it fell. The amount of solid timber in this tree has been calculated at 500,000 cubic feet. On the stump, which

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