[Illustration: CHAPEL OAK OF ALLOUVILLE.] We have been visiting single trees of different kinds. There is a family of trees, every member of which attains a great size. The Baobabs ought to be large, for they require 800 years to attain their full growth. They then measure, usually, from 70 to 77 feet in girth. Enormous branches spread out from the central stem, each one of which is a respectable size for a tree. So these trees give a splendid shade, covering a space of ground 300 feet in circumference. They do not grow very tall. These trees are found chiefly in Africa. The Baobabs remind us of another marvel of the vegetable kingdom—the great age of some trees. We have mentioned one 900 years old, and another 1,500. The ages of these are known because the trees have been traced back historically for that length of time. But these are babies in age by the side of the Baobabs. Botanists calculate the ages of the largest Baobabs to be over 5,000 years! We must remember this is _calculation_, not _certainty_. It is positively known, however, that some of them are several hundred years old; and there are olive trees known to have lived over a thousand years. This is a very good old age when we consider that man seldom lives to a hundred. [Illustration: THE GIANT CANDLE.] The height to which some tropical plants that are not trees grow is surprising. You have, no doubt, all seen the queer fleshy-leaved cactus that is cultivated in green-houses. This plant has no woody stem, and yet one species of it grows to the height of twenty and thirty feet. [Illustration: TREE FERNS.] It is called the giant candle, and it certainly looks like one. The great height of this plant is the more surprising because it grows right out of crevices of rocks where no soil can be seen, and pushes its straight, fleshy stem up into the air without anything to shelter it from the furious winds that often sweep over the country. But it braves the winds, and grows, and grows; and every year puts forth its large white flowers, and bears upon its queer stalk a very savory fruit. The largest palms rise to a height of 45 feet, and more or sometimes as high as 70 feet—before putting out a single branch. Then they spread out a great plume of feathery leaves. The wax palm of the Andes is said to grow to the height of 200 feet. In New Zealand, the ferns, that are here so fragile and delicate, grow so high that they look, at a little distance like small palms. The tallest trees in the world are the giant trees of California. These are from 300 to 350 feet high; and one that was cut down was 450 feet high. We cannot very well speak of the height of vines, but there are species of these that grow to a very great length. Sometimes one stalk will stretch itself out to the length of 150 yards. Some of the sea-weeds, thrown upon the shore, measure 500 yards in a single strip.