A 557269
THE
STORY
BOOK
OF
SCIENCE
JEAN
HENRI
FABRE
1817 SCIENTIA
ARTES
VERITAS LIBRARY OF IGAN CHTHE MI TY I S R E V OF UNI
PLURICUS UMUM
TUEBOR
SI-QUERIS PENINS
ULAM AMENAM
CIRCUM
SPICE
From the Library of A. W. Diack
CHAPTER IX THE AGE OF TREES HEY used to tell of a chestnut of Sancerre
"TH whose round.
trunk
was
more
than
four
meters
According to the most moderate estimate its
age must have been three or four hundred years. Don't cry out at the age of this chestnut.
My story
is just beginning, and you may be sure that, as a narrator who stimulates the curiosity of his audience, I reserve the oldest for the end . " Much larger chestnuts are known ; for example, that of Neuve-Celle, on the borders of the Lake of Geneva, and that of Esaü, in the neighborhood of Montélimar.
The first is thirteen meters round at
the base of the trunk.
From the year 1408 it shel-
tered a hermitage ; the story has been testified to. Since then four centuries and a half have passed, adding to its age, and lightning has struck it at different times.
No matter, it is still vigorous and
full of leaves .
The second is a majestic ruin.
Its
high branches are despoiled ; its trunk, eleven meters round, is plowed with deep crevices, the wrinkles of old age.
To tell the age of these two giants is
hardly possible.
Perhaps it might be reckoned at a
thousand years , and still the two old trees bear fruit ; they will not die." 40
THE AGE OF TREES "A thousand years ! should not believe it." " Sh !
41
If Uncle had not said it, I This from Jules .
You must listen to the end without saying
anything, " cautioned his uncle. "The largest tree in the world is a chestnut on the slopes of Etna, in Sicily.
Look at the map : you
will see down there, at the extreme end of Italy, op posite the toe of that beautiful country which has the shape of a boot, a large island with three corners . That is Sicily.
On that island is a celebrated moun
tain which throws up burning matter-a volcano , in short.
It is called Etna .
To come back to our chest
nut, I must tell you that they call it ' the chestnut of a hundred horses , ' because Jane, Queen of Aragon, visiting the volcano one day and, overtaken by a storm , took refuge under it with her escort of a hun dred horsemen.
Under its forest of leaves both
riders and horses found shelter.
To surround the
giant, thirty people extending their arms and join ing hands would not be enough . than fifty meters round .
The trunk is more
Judged by its size , it is less
a tree-trunk than a fortress, a tower.
An opening
large enough to permit two carriages to pass abreast goes through the base of the chestnut and gives ac cess into the cavity of the trunk, which is fitted up for the use of those who go to gather chestnuts ; for the old colossus still has young sap and seldom fails to bear fruit.
It is impossible to estimate the
age of this giant by its size, for one suspects that a trunk as large as that comes from several chestnuts , originally distinct, but so near together that they have become welded into one.
42
THE STORY-BOOK OF SCIENCE
"Neustadt, in Württemberg , has a linden whose branches, overburdened by years , are held up by a hundred pillars of masonry. The branches cover all together a space 130 meters in circumference. In 1229 this tree was already
old,
for
writers
of
that
time
call
big
linden. '
probable day
is
eight
it 'the Its
age toseven or hundred
years. " There was in
France, at the beginning
of
this
century, an older White Oak tree than the vetteran of Neustadt.
In 1804 could be seen at the
castle of Chaillé, in the Deux- Sèvres, a linden 15 meters round.
It had six main branches propped
with numerous pillars .
If it still exists it cannot be
less than eleven centuries old. " The cemetery of Allouville, in Normandy, is shaded by one of the oldest oaks in France .
The
dust of the dead , into which it has thrust its roots , seems to have given it an exceptional vigor. Its trunk measures ten meters in circumference at the base.
A hermit's chamber surmounted by a little
steeple rises in the midst of its enormous branches. The base of the trunk, partly hollow, is fitted up as a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Peace.
The