“The Bo-tree of Anurādha-pura is, in all probability, _the oldest historical tree in the world_. It was planted 288 years before Christ, and hence is now 2,147 years old. Ages varying from one to four thousand years have been assigned to the _Baobabs_ of Senegal, the _Eucalyptus_ of Tasmania, the _Dragon-tree_ of Orotava, the _Sequoia_ of California, and the chestnut of Mount Etna. But all these estimates are matters of conjecture, and such calculations, however ingenious, must be purely inferential. Whereas the age of the Bo-tree is _matter of record_, its conservancy has been an object of solicitude to successive dynasties, and the story of its vicissitudes has been preserved in a series of continuous chronicles, among the most authentic that have been handed down to mankind. Compared with it, the Oak of Ellerslie is but a sapling, and the Conqueror’s Oak in Windsor Forest barely numbers half its years. The yew trees of Fountain’s Abbey are believed to have flourished there 1,200 years ago; the olives in the Garden of Gethsemane were full grown when the Saracens were expelled from Jerusalem; and the Cypress of Senna, in Lombardy, is said to have been a tree in the time of Julius Cæsar; yet the Bo-tree is older than the oldest of these by a century, and would almost seem to verify the prophecy pronounced when it was planted, that it would flourish and be green forever.” To which Rhys-David adds: “The tree could scarcely have lived so long had it not been for the constant care of the monks. As it showed signs of decay terraces were built up around it, so that it now grows more than twenty feet above the surrounding soil; for the tree being of the fig species--its botanical name is _ficus religiosa_--its living branches could then throw out fresh roots. Where its long arms spread beyond the inclosure, rude pillars of iron or masonry have been used to prop them up; and it is carefully watered in seasons of drought. The whole aspect of the tree and its inclosure bear evident signs of extreme age; but we could not be sure of its identity were it not for the complete chain of documentary evidence which has been so well brought together by Sir Emerson Tennent.” REDUCING THE TRIPITAKA TO WRITING. In the year 88 B.C. (Buddhism had long before this become the religion of the whole of this great island), the king built the largest Dagaba in Ceylon, 250 feet in height. It was at this time that the whole of the Three Pitakas were reduced to writing. This was 330 years after Gautama’s death. The Ceylonese history says: “The wise monks of former days handed down by word of mouth The text of the Three Pitakas, and the Commentary upon them: Seeing the destruction of men, the monks of this time assembled, And, that the Faith might last long, they wrote them in books.”