1213. The exogens furnish examples of gigantic size, and great longevity. In South America on the banks of the Atabapo, Humboldt measured a _Bombax caiba_ more than 120 feet high, and 15 in diameter; and near Cumana, he found the _Zamang del Guayra_, a species of mimosa, the pendant branches of the hemispherical head having a circumference of upwards of 600 feet. The _Adansonia_, or baobab of Senegal, though attaining no great height, rarely more than fifty feet, has a trunk with a diameter sometimes amounting to 34 feet; while the _Pinus Lambertiana_, growing singly on the plains west of the Rocky Mountains, has been found 250 feet high, 60 feet in circumference at the base, 4-1/2 feet in girth at the height of 190 feet, yielding cones 11 inches round, and 16 long. The _Ficus Indicus_, or banian tree, sending out shoots from its horizontal branches, which reaching the ground take root, and form new stems till a single tree multiplies almost to a forest, has been observed covering an area of 1700 square yards. [Verse: "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in season: his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."--PSALM I.] 1214. From the number of concentric zones observed in a transverse section of the stems De Caudolle advances proof of the following ages: Elm 335 years. Cypress about 350 " Cheirostemon " 400 " Ivy 450 " Larch 576 " Orange 630 " Olive 700 " Oriental Plane " 720 " and upwards. Cedar of Lebanon " 800 " Oak 810, 1080, 1500 " Lime 1076, 1147 " Yew 1214, 1458, 2588, 2880 " Taxodium 4000 to 6000 " Baobab 5150 " 1215. Admitting, with Professor Henslow, that De Candolle overrated the ages of these trees one-third, they are examples of extraordinary longevity. Yew trees upwards of 700 years old remain at Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire, as there is historic evidence of their existence in the year 1133. But a yew in the churchyard of Darley-in-the-Dale, Derbyshire, is considered by Mr. Bowman as 2000 years old.