The Lamoille news. (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1877-1881, 1878-03-06
Remarkable and Historic Trees.

Hemarkable ana HtSt0ric Trees.
There are numerous remarkable. and
historic trees, among which may he
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 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. 1t resembles the Amer
ican oak, and its 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 a small
tree, the berries of which make excellent
candles. II 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 30 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 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 "religious fig" because under its
shade they suppose their god Vishnu
was born. 1t 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.
One of the most remarkable trees in
history is the great dragon tree, which
was blown down by hurricane few
years since at Orotava, in the Island of
Teneriffe. It was 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 its widespreading branches
about the year 1920, is supposed to be
now 5000 years old.
A type of antiquity in the vegetable
kingdom ID that of fig tree in Ceylon,
planted, according to documentary and
traditional evidence, 2SS B. G., making it
2, 1865 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 it's branches, on one of
he estates of the Duke OF Portland 1t
is considered to be thirteen hundred
years old. The tallest oak in England
vas the property of the same nobleman,
and was called the " Dukes Walking
stick" 1t WAS higher than Westminster
Abbey. The largest oak is known as
Calthrop Oak" Yorkshire; it meas
ures seventy eight feet round the ground,
while the Three-shire Oak" at Work
sop, is 80 called from its shade covering
part of three counties.