Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-07-23
SOME ANCIENT TREES.
Trees Over a Thousand Years OId--Oth
Reputed to Have q History

Trees Over Thousand Years Old--Others
Reputed to Have a History
Illustrated American: There are sever
al trees In Europe that are more than 900
years old, if we may believe tradition, de-
scended from generation to generation;
may count their years by centuries; and
others are from 2,00S to 5000 years old,
according to the computation of men
OF science. There is a cypress in the
vicinity of Padua which is regarded as
having been contemporary of Julius
Caesar, and, according to another legend.
1t was against the trunk of this tree that
francis L. of France, seeing 'sall lost save
honor, endeavored to break his sword.
The Oak of Swllcar Lawn, in the forest of
Needwood, England was still robust in
1892, at the age of 600 years, and, at the
same epoch, there might have been seen
at Shupstead Place, county of Kent,
large elm, around which a fair was an
nually held during the reign of Henry v,
In the fifteenth century. The age of
the Bradburn yew, in this same
county OF Kent, was estimated by De Cam
DOLE to be 5000 years, and he attributed
the same age to another yew, that Of For.
tlngal, Scotland. The English historian.
Evelyn, In the seventeen century cited a
linden of the environs of Neustadt
lNurtemburg), then aged more than l.
600 years. At Hildesheim, in Hanover.
there is celebrated rose bush, the oldest
In the world. Gharlemagne himself plant
ed 1t more than athousand years ago in
comemmoration of the embassy received
from the callph Of the Thousand and One
Nights, Haroun-al-Raschid In S1S Louis
lie Debonnarie, had a chapel constructed,
the altar of which was placed over the
roots OF the rose bush. The stem of this
rose bush is about 2 inches in diameter
and q feet in height. The branches,
trained up against the apsis of the chapel.
over surface of 11S square feet. The
plant annually bears a large number of
flowers. linden stands not far from the
church OF Cadler IN Keer, in the province
OF Llmburg, whose trunk measures about
1O feet In circumference. 1t is said to
have been planted by the Roman soldiers
who were besieging the neighboring city
OF Attnabca, now Horstens. A violent
storm broke off portion of the branches
In 1868, and the debris amounted to six
wagon loads. Some years later ITS top
suffered greatly by a fire that consumed
the houses in the vicinity; but despite
these two accidents the tree is still yigor-
Gus, and it shades a vast Surface. There
is to be seen also at Schwarzenherq. in
Saxony, a linden whose trunk is Is feet in
circumference, and two others at Schnee-
berry, one Is and the other IA feet in cir
conference. The ancient acts and chart
ers often mention trees selected as bound
aries of property. Thus, chestnut tree
at Tortworth, Eng, whose trunk is
formed by the adhesion of two trees, fgur-
es upon two charters dated 1875. An oak
still living at Tilford, near Franham, is
mentioned in a charter of Henry of Blois,
under the date of 1850 A hawthorn in
the vicinity of Norfolk, long known as the
Hetherthorn, is the OLD thorn spoken of in
an act of 1900. But among the oldest of
trees are he eiant sequoias of California.
A sequoia gigantea feled in Calaveras
county measured 1856 feet in height, 1875
in diameter at the base, and Is at 125 feet
above the earth, and had attained the
age.of 3,0OOyears. California, however, has
by no means monopoly of ancient trees,
however tall her companions may be.
Palestine, for instance, has the cedars of
Lebanon, which have been celebrated for
ages.