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TREBIZOND

1940

TREE-DWELLERS

as the place of discussion. The principal articles of agreement were concluded between Aug. 8 and Aug. 31. It was agreed that Japan should have a protectorate over Korea, that Manchuria should be left to China, that Chinese territory should be safeguarded, that an "open-door" policy was to be maintained for the commerce of all nations with China and that the Liaotung peninsula should fall to Japan, with half of the island of Sakhalin. An armistice was concluded between Russia and Japan on Aug. 31; and on Oct. 16 the text of the treaty" was published. Its terms were considered liberal to Russia, since she escaped an indemnity and gained railway concessions from China. See CHINA, JAPAN and RUSSIA.

Trebizond (treb'i-zbnd), a Turkish seaport on the Black Sea. It is surrounded by hills, which take in many gardens as well as the town, and is defended by forts and a citadel. There are mosques and Greek churches, copper-foundries, dye-works etc. Its large trade with eastern Europe and Central Asia makes it, next to Smyrna, the chief commercial city in Asia Minor. Trebizond was a flourishing town when Xenophon and the Ten Thousand reached it on their retreat from Persia (B. C, 401-400). After it was conquered by the Romans, it rose in importance, Trajan giving it a larger and better harbor. When the crusaders took Constantinople in 1204, Alexius I of the imperial family founded the empire of Trebizond, till then a province of the Byzantine empire. It remained independent till captured by the Turks in 1461. Population 135,000.

Tree, the climax form of vegetation. There is no line of separation between shrubs and trees, but when a woody plant rises from the ground as a single shaft which is higher than a man, there is general consent to call it a tree. Not only do ordinary trees of temperate regions continuously increase in height, but their trunks and branches increase in diameter. As a rule, during each growing-season a cylinder of new wood is laid down around the old wood. In a cross-section these successive cylinders appear as concentric rings, and by counting the rings the approximate age of a tree is obtained. This habit of adding new wood each year, which increases the conducting capacity of the stem just so much, enables the tree to increase its display of branches and foliage each year. Such a habit is found only among the gymnosperms and dicotyledons. In the former group the leaves are mostly persistent, the trees being commonly called evergreens; while the dicotyledonous trees of temperate regions are mostly deciduous. The palms are common illustrations of monocotyledonous trees, in wh'ch there is no increase in diameter, hence no branching worthy the name and

no annual increase of foliage display. The tallest trees, species of the Australian genus Eucalyptus, do not quite reach 500 feet. The largest trunks range in girth from 80 to 100 feet, and are developed by such forms as eucalyptus the sequoia, bald cypress and the baobab-trees of Senegal. A Mexican bald cypress is on record with a girth of 112 feet. See FOREST.

Tree=Dwell'ers are native tribes of the Australasian archipelago whose houses are built upon piles. They thus are elevated from four to eight feet above the ground,

and are entered by a narrow ladder-like stairway of bamboo which may be drawn up at will. Where tribes fear attack from human enemies, their houses often are perched high in the air, either on long piles or in high trees. The dwellings of the wild Tagbannas and the Gaddanes of the Philippine Islands are of this type.. The Papuans of New Guinea have dobbos, houses built in high trees, their use being chiefly that of an acropolis in times of danger, but some tribes who are especially harassed by warlike neighbors appear to live entirely in them. In Sumatra a similar house is called the balai. The head-hunting tribes of the Solomon Islands are most deserving of the title of tree-dwellers. The inhabitants of the island of Ysabel, a favorite hunting-ground for the more northern tribes, make no attempt at armed resistance, but have built tree-dwellings and hill-fortifications. The former are quite numerous, and are used as ordinary places of residence in times of peace. Mr. W. Coote in Wanderings South and East describes such a house built