The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-03-27
Remarkable and Historic Trees.

historic trees, among which may be
named the bread-fruit tree of Ceylon,
the fruit of which is baked and eaten as
we eat bread, and is equally good and
nutritious. In Barbutu, South America,
is q tree which by piercing the trunk
produces milk, with which the inhabi-
tants feed their children. In the inte-
rior of Africa is a tree which produces
excellent butter. It resembles the Amer
lean oak, and it's fruit, from which the
butter is prepared, is not unlike the
olive. The great traveller, Park, declared
that the flower surpassed any made in
England from cows milk. At Sierra
Leone is the cream fruit tree, which is
quite agreeable in taste. At Table Bay,
near the Cape of Good Hope, is small
tree, the berries of which make excellent
candies. It is also found in the Azores.
The vegetable tallow tree also grows
in, Sumatra; and the bark of a tree in
China produces beautiful soap. The
talypot tree in Ceylon grows to the
height of one hundred feet, the leaf of
which is so large that it will cover nearly
twenty people, like an umbrella. The
banyan tree is wonderful; it never dies,
and is constantly extending, for as the
branches shoot downward they take root,
and thus produce other trees, whose
branches in like manner extend down.
ward, and resembling large oaks, the
fruit of which is much like rich scarlet
figs, and furnishes q luxurious subsist-
ence to monkeys and birds of every
description.
The pippul tree is said to be "the
most completely beautiful of all which
adorn the wide garden of Nature" The
Hindoos call it the "Tree Of God " and
the "relgious fig" because under its
shade they, suppose their god Vishnu
was born. It is held by them in such
veneration that the form of the leaves is
only allowed to be painted on furniture
used by their princes. They plant them
as memorials Of persons deceased. They
serve also for shade for travellers. The
Chinese feed vast numbers of silkworms
on this tree. .
l. One of the most remarkable trees in
history is the great dragon tree, which
was blown down by hurricane a few
years since at Orotava, in the Island OF
Tenerihe. It was a stately tree, about
eighty feet high, as early as A. D., 1402,
and 80 old and remarkable = tree then as
to excite particular notice and care for
its preservation. Humboldt spoke of it
some sixty-two years ago and computed
it to be 5000 years old. Sir George
Staunton had previously brought it into
notice in It'll; '..'
A cypress tree in Oaxaca, Mexico,
which forty-three years ago measured
one hundred and twenty feet in height,
one hundred and seventeen feet ten
inches in circumference, and which
sheltered Herman Cortez and his follow
ers under it's widespreading branches
about the year 1920, is supposed to be
now 5000 years old. =.
A type of antiquity in the vegetable
kingdom is that of fig tree IN Ceylon,
planted, according to documentary and
traditional evidence, 288 B. O., making it
2, 1856 years Old
The Oldest oak in England is in Here
fordshire, situated in Hatfield Park. 1t
is over a thousand years old. Another
old oak is the PARLIAMENT Oak" from
the tradition of Edward I. holding a
parliament under its branches, on one of
the estates of the Duke Of Portland. 1t
is considered to be thirteen hundred
years old. The taDest oak in England
was the property Of the same nobleman,
and was called the "Duke's Walking
stick" It was higher than Westminster
Abbey. The largest oak is known as
"Calthrop Oak" Yorkshire; it meas
ures seventy. eight feetround the ground,
while the Three-shire Oak" at Work
SOP, is 80 called from its shade covering
part of three counties.