Page:Aspects of nature in different lands and different climates; with scientific elucidations (IA b29329668 0002).pdf/104

 *[Footnote: lichens, giving it a pleasing appearance. Judging by the size of a small piece of wood which has been cut out above the door, and in which the marks of 200 annular rings have been counted, the oak of Saintes would be between 1800 and 2000 years old. (Annales de la Société d'Agriculture de la Rochelle, 1843, p. 380.)

In the wild rose-tree of the crypt of the Cathedral of Hildesheim, said to be a thousand years old, it is the root only, and not the stem, which is eight centuries old, according to accurate information derived from ancient and trustworthy original documents, for the knowledge of which I am indebted to the kindness of Stadtgerichts-Assessor Römer. A legend connects the rose-tree with a vow made by the first founder of the cathedral, Ludwig the Pious; and an original document of the 11th century says, "that when Bishop Hezilo rebuilt the cathedral which had been burnt down, he enclosed the roots of the rose-tree with a vault which still exists, raised upon this vault the crypt, which was re-consecrated in 1061, and spread out the branches of the rose-tree upon the walls." The stem now living is 26-1/2 feet high and about two inches thick, and the outspread branches cover about 32 feet of the external wall of the eastern crypt; it is doubtless of considerable antiquity, and well deserving of the celebrity which it has gained throughout Germany.

If extraordinary development in point of size is to be regarded as a proof of long continued organic life, particular attention is due to one of the thalassophytes of the sub-marine vegetable world, i. e., to the Fucus giganteus,]*