Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1914-05-22


turbances in Mexico have postponed
temporarily the attainment of the
preme ambition held by Dr. Herman Schrenk
of st. Louis, which is to determine scientifically
the approximate age of this nestor Of the whole
vegetable kingdom.
Experts, judging by the gigantic bole of the
Santa Maria del Tule cypress and by the slow
growth of this species, have estimated the age
of the patriarch of all trees to be between 5000
and 5000 years.
These figures are staggering to the magma
ton. Taking the lowest computation, when the
seed from which the tree sprang fell upon the
earth King Menes holding the first reign in
Egypt, of which have historic knowledge
5000 years before the birth Of Christ. It
slender STRIPPING, 200 years old, when Cheops
drove his subjects with the lash to the labor of
building the great Pyramid. 1t had reached a
lusty youth of 1,500 years when the Hebrews
made their exodus from the land of this Nile.
This living thing in tropical America was 81
lently building itself to it's present stature and
vigor seven centuries before Babylon reached its
greatest splendor Ancient Nineveh in the ninth
century before the Christian era, parvenQ
compared with the Oaxaca cypress. The earliest
cuneiform inscriptions which psychologists have
unearthed in Assyria date back to only 1900 B. c.
and the tree in Mexico which was TO arise In
the distant future new and unknown CONT
nent had even then lived almost as many years
as separate the world today from the final recall
6f the Roman legions from Britain
This still fourishing tree of the twentieth CEN
Fury had built its annual rings and spread its
yearly foliage for ten centuries when Abraham
tended his f1ocks and a vision of the Jewish
race that was to be. 1t had lived 1000 years
before David slew Goliath and Solomon erected
the temple at Jerusalem.
In the eye of its hoary antiquity, Troy, Athens,
lthe Macedonian kingdom and the Roman empire
were mere upstairs of time. The discovery of
America and the conquest of Mexico by Cortez
would seem, in its life, things of only few
months ago.
The last scientific measurement of the Santa
Maria del Tule cypress was made by DIR. Won
Schrenk in 1903, century after Humboldt dis
covered it while on his famous tour of the equa-
torial America DR.. Won Schrenk found that
it's trunk four feet from the ground, had the
astounding girth of 126 feet.
An idea Of its vast age may be obtained by
comparing it with cypress described by Prof
Asa Gray, which, although only IA feet in cir
conference, go years old So slow is the
growth of the cypress that this tree had required
nearly seven centuries to attain diameter of
81 inches
DR.. Won SchrenE, now arboricultural expert
with laboratory at the Missouri botanical gar
den in ST. Louis was in 1903 connected with the
United States forestry service. While travelling
through southern Mexico he determined to In
spect the Santa Maria del Tule cypress. Arriving
at the village he introduced himself an official
of the United States government who wished to
examine the famous tree. The mayor welcomed
him with elaborate ceremony.
Dr. Won Schrenk learned that the tree was
regarded as sacred in the vicinity and that 1t
was guarded night and day by two soldier senti
nels. Escorted by numerous and dgnified
retinue as the mayor could muster, he marched
to the little graveyard in which the cypress
stands.
Before the broad and towering bulk of this