LANDSCAPES PAINTED BY POETS. 59 How terrible would be the gloom of Earth if no such scene diversified its roundness as the following: Methought that I had wandered far In an old wood: fresh-washed in coolest dew, "Enormous elm-tree boles did stoop and lean Upon the dusky brushwood underneath Their broad curved branches, fledged with clearest green, 66 Growths of jasmine turned, Their humid arms festooning tree to tree, And at the root through lush green grasses burned And what images of beauty we should lose if our poets could not seek their inspiration among the forest glades and musical woods, where the embowering trees at times recede, and open up a little space of green expanse, checkered by the sunlight and the shadow! Silence and twilight here, twin-sisters, keep Their noonday watch, and sail among the shades, In truth, the grove and the forest are essential parts not only of the grandeur but of the beauty of nature, while the trees themselves, considered separately, are among the most interesting and sublimest of the divine works. For example: they are distinguished by their height, 60 LONGEVITY OF TREES. their size, and their strength. The Wellingtonia gigantea attains an altitude which man's proudest buildings have never reached. The famous chestnut-tree of Mount Etna spreads its branches over so wide an area that a company of horsemen could encamp conveniently beneath them. I have myself seen in England vigorous green elms, full of life and sap, which measured between twenty and thirty feet in girth. As for strength, you will see the Alpine mountain-sides clothed with rich woods of pine and fir, which steadfastly resist the avalanche of snow and ice that sweeps before it like dust the crowded village. You will find the forest oak braving for a thousand years the storms of winter, and standing strong and erect before the gale which has toppled over spire and tower. In respect to longevity, no animal can presume to cope with the living trees. The patriarchs of the forest laugh at history; they were planted by the hand of Nature before men began to record in writing the events of the passing years. Who shall presume to define the age of some of the hoary trunks which still rear their stalwart frames in the depths of the American wilderness? In our own country there are many which serve to link the present with the past, which were witnesses of the fierce struggle between Norman and Saxon, which were venerable with years when hunted Roundhead or Cavalier often found shelter among their branches. The King's oak at Windsor is twenty-six feet in circumference, and was a favourite with William of Normandy, it is said, when he first enclosed the forest. Of the Winfarthing oak at Diss, the story is told that it was a greybeard even at the epoch of the Conquest. In girth, a foot or two above the SOME VENERABLE PATRIARCHS. 61 ground, it measures seventy feet. The famous Ankerwyke yew must have been two centuries old when John signed Magna Charta in the adjacent meadow of Runnimede. Near Croydon there are oaks which may probably have seen the glint of the Roman spears as the stout legionaries wound their way through the glades of the Andredesweald. Some years ago there flourished at Fountains Abbey a yew, under whose branches the monks had been wont to take shelter from the rain, while their abbey was being HOARY TRUNKS. erected in 1133. Of three other English yews satisfactory evidence exists that they attained the respective ages of 1287, 2558, and 2880 years. From De Candolle I borrow the following figures in illustration of the longevity of 62 DISTRIBUTION OF TREES. The famous Baobab of the Cape de Verde Islands is, however, the most remarkable instance. There seems reason to believe that it attained the astonishing age of Even in its decay, it measured 109 feet in 5150 years. circumference. It is unnecessary to remind the reader that each climatic zone of the earth has its separate genera of trees, and that to look for an oak in the hot deserts of Nubia would be as absurd as to search for a violet on the frozen summit of Mont Blanc. This is the great law of nature: a place for everything, and everything in its place. In northern regions the forests are composed of coniferous trees, as pine and fir, whose pyramidal shape is well adapted for throwing off the burden of snow imposed upon them by the winter storms. In the Tropic forests the trees mostly belong to the palm tribe, which need the full ardour of the sun to develop their vitality and mature their fruit. In these luxuriant woods, moreover, the grasses which under a cold northern sky scarcely peep above the surface of the ground, rise into lofty trunks; some, like the bamboo, being sixty feet in stature. And a wealth of creeping plants twines around and about them; a labyrinth of climbers, epiphytes, and parasites, through whose close meshes it is with difficulty the traveller makes his way. It is a curious fact that the primary form of all trees is the cone-that is, the form of all others best adapted to secure solidity, strength, and power of endurance. All young trees preserve a conical outline, though, as they grow older, many of them—as, for instance, the oak and beech-depart from their original pattern by putting forth a number of horizontal branches, until they ripen |