“ All plants of a soft, watery constitu- tion, and which have fine, tender organs, have a short life, and last only one or at most two years. Those alone which have stronger organs and tougher juices exist longer, but wood is absolutely necessary in order to attain to the high- est degree of vegetable existence. “Even among those which live only one or two years, a remarkable differ- ence may be observed. Those which are of a cold, insipid nature, and desti- tute of smell, live, under like circum- stances, not so long as the strong- scented balsamic plants, which contain more essential oil and spirits. “ Lettuce, wheat, oats, barley, and all kinds of corn live no more than a year ; but, on the other hand, thyme, mint, hyssop, balm, wormwood, marjoram, sage, &c. , can live two years, and even longer. Shrubs and small trees can live sixty years, and some even twice that number. “ The vine attains to sixty or a hun- dred years, and continues fruitful at the greatest age. This is the case also with rosemary. The acanthus and ivy, how- ever, can exceed the age of a hundred. Among many such, for example, as the different kinds of rubus (common bram- ble, blackberry, raspberry), it is difficult to determine the age, as the branches creep along the ground and always form new plants, so that it is almost impos- sible to distinguish the new from the old ; and by these means they make their existence, as it were, perennial. Those which attain to the highest age are the greatest, strongest, and hardest TRJE 392 TRE trees; such as the oak, the lime-tree, the beech, the chestnut, the elm, the palm-tree, the cedar, the olive, the palm, the mulberry-tree, and the baobab. We may with certainty affirm that some of the cedars of Lebanon, the celebrated chestnut tree, di centi cavalli, in Sicily, and several of the sacred oaks under which the ancient Germans performed their religious ceremonies, may have attained to the age of a thousand years and more. These are the most venerable, the only now existing testi- monies of the ancient world, and inspire us with reverence and awe when the rustling wind plays through their silvery locks, which once served to overshade the Druids and our wild ancestors clothed in their bear-skins.’’ Grindon remarks on the longevity of trees : “How vast are the periods of life allotted to the longaeval trees may be judged from the following list of ages known to have been reached by patri- archs of the respective kinds : •Cercis 300 years. Elm 33S it Ivy ... ... ... 4SO it Maple 516 a Larch ... ... ... 576 4 i Orange 630 M Cypress 800 14 * Olive 800 te Walnut 900 <4 Oriental Plane ... 1,000 •« Lime 1,100 • 4 Spruce 1,200 44 Oak 1,500 44 Cedar 2,000 44 Schubertia 3-000 44 Yew 3,200 if ‘Four and five thousand years assigned to the Taxodiutn and the Adansonia, and V&n Martius describes locust-trees in the South American forests which he believes to have begun their quasi immortality in the days of Homer. Whether or no, it may safely be asserted that the world possesses at * There are olive-trees in the supposed garden of Gethsemane which have been irjtimattii at 3,000 yean 1 but these are pro- bably mere descendants of those connected with the naratives of the Gospel, put forth originally as suckers from their roots, and to be regarded rather as restorations than as identically the same.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

“ All plants of a soft, watery constitution, and which have fine, tender organs, have a short life, and last only one or at most two years. Those alone which have stronger organs and tougher juices exist longer, but wood is absolutely necessary in order to attain to the highest degree of vegetable existence. “Even among those which live only one or two years, a remarkable difference may be observed. Those which are of a cold, insipid nature, and destitute of smell, live, under like circumstances, not so long as the strong-scented balsamic plants, which contain more essential oil and spirits. “ Lettuce, wheat, oats, barley, and all kinds of corn live no more than a year ; but, on the other hand, thyme, mint, hyssop, balm, wormwood, marjoram, sage, &c. , can live two years, and even longer. Shrubs and small trees can live sixty years, and some even twice that number. “ The vine attains to sixty or a hundred years, and continues fruitful at the greatest age. This is the case also with rosemary. The acanthus and ivy, however, can exceed the age of a hundred. Among many such, for example, as the different kinds of rubus (common bramble, blackberry, raspberry), it is difficult to determine the age, as the branches creep along the ground and always form new plants, so that it is almost impossible to distinguish the new from the old ; and by these means they make their existence, as it were, perennial. Those which attain to the highest age are the greatest, strongest, and hardest trees; such as the oak, the lime-tree, the beech, the chestnut, the elm, the palm-tree, the cedar, the olive, the palm, the mulberry-tree, and the baobab. We may with certainty affirm that some of the cedars of Lebanon, the celebrated chestnut tree, di cento cavalli, in Sicily, and several of the sacred oaks under which the ancient Germans performed their religious ceremonies, may have attained to the age of a thousand years and more. These are the most venerable, the only now existing testimonies of the ancient world, and inspire us with reverence and awe when the rustling wind plays through their silvery locks, which once served to overshade the Druids and our wild ancestors clothed in their bear-skins.’’ Grindon remarks on the longevity of trees : “How vast are the periods of life allotted to the long-aeval trees may be judged from the following list of ages known to have been reached by patriarchs of the respective kinds : •Cercis 300 years. Elm 33S it Ivy ... ... ... 4SO it Maple a Larch ... ... ... 4 i Orange M Cypress * Olive te Walnut <4 Oriental Plane ... 1,000 •« Lime 1,100 • 4 Spruce 1,200 Oak 1,500 Cedar 2,000 Schubertia 3-000 Yew 3,200 if ‘Four and five thousand years assigned to the Taxodiutn and the Adansonia, and V&n Martius describes locust-trees in the South American forests which he believes to have begun their quasi immortality in the days of Homer. Whether or no, it may safely be asserted that the world possesses at * There are olive-trees in the supposed garden of Gethsemane which have been intimated at 3,000 yean 1 but these are probably mere descendants of those connected with the naratives of the Gospel, put forth originally as suckers from their roots, and to be regarded rather as restorations than as identically the same.

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