A true & exact history of the island of BarbadosLigon, Richard
History
A true & exact history of the island of Barbados
Ligon, Richard
Barbados -- Description and travel; Plants -- Barbados; Sugar -- Manufacture and refining -- Barbados
Now if we go by the rule of Three, and say, If 16 inches diamiter
make 200 foot high, what shall 25 inches? And by this rule we shall
prove her to be 312 foot high. But the branches of this tree were all
carried away, so that I could see none of them. But I have measured a
branch of one of those trees of 200 foot high, and found it 25 foot
long. So then, by the same Rule: If 200 foot high bear a branch of 25
foot long, what shall a Tree of 312 foot high do? And I see by the
same Rule, it appears to be 39 foot long. And one of these trees,
after she comes to bear fruit, will have no lesse then 20 branches
at once, (but many more in her nonage) and halfe of them hold this
length. I have seen a branch of one of these small trees of 200 foot
high, fallen down, and blown from the tree in the falling, twenty
paces off, which has made me admire from whence it should come: For,
the tree being of so great a height, the branches lose much of their
bignesse and length by their distance: But, lying on the ground,
where we can take the just measure, we find what they are. And it is
an admirable thing, to see the form of this sprig or branch, which
is not above two inches broad where it joynes to the film, and is
lessening of the breadth from that end to the point, which is twenty
five foot long, so insensible, as it is not possible to discern where
the diminution is. So smooth, so eeven, so firme and tough, as though
it be not wood, ’tis much stronger, and abler to endure the weather,
or any kinde of bending. The leaves that grow upon this stalk, are
all of them (unlesse towards the points) two foot long; that part
which touches the stalk, small, but strong enough to bear the leafe,
and has a little short stalk, to which the leafe growes, which leafe
is as exactly form’d, as the stalk, growing by degrees, to make two
inches broad in the middle, and losing that breadth insensibly to
the point. These leaves are thin, but tough enough, to endure the
strongest winde that blowes, without being broken, and not above four
inches distant one from another; which multiplicity of leaves, makes
the beauty of the tree the fuller. About the time this tree parts
with her belly, & growes to a slender kind of shape, she drawes up
amongst her roots some of the soyle that bred her, about two foot
higher than the levell of ground that is neer it; and by reason it is
held in by an infinity of small roots, that come from the body, it
there remaines firm, and falls not down; the outside of this earth
is about a foot round about, broader than the diameter of the tree;
so that if the diameter of the tree be a foot, the diameter of this
earth is three foot at top, but somewhat more below; for the sides
are not so steep, as to hold one breadth above and below. If this
earth were beautifull, smooth, and large enough, it might be called
the Pedistan to that Corinthian Pillar, the Palmeto Royall. But what
is wanting in the Pedistall, is supplyed in the dimensions of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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