Page:The Popular Educator Volume 1.djvu/36

 as he sees it growing in our climate? A poor tiny thing scarcely bigger than a geranium he would not term a tree, he would call it a shrub or a bush; nevertheless, this very same species of myrtle assumes under the more genial sun of Southern Europe and Northern Africa the dimensions of a goodly tree. Again, what would the reader term the mignonette? A plant of course; yet in Northern Africa, along the Barbary coast, its stem becomes woody, and it assumes the aspect of a bush or shrub at least.

When the true relations subsisting between vegetables are well considered, we shall find that the mere size of a vegetable has nothing to do with its real nature: thus the sugar-cane, which grows to the elevation of fifteen or sixteen feet, is still to all intents and purposes a grass; as in like manner is the bamboo, which assumes the dimensions of a tree. Then, again, the lily tribe. Does not the very sound of the word lily cause ideas to arise of some delicate herb-like growth, surmounted with drooping flowers? Of this kind are the lilies which grow in our climate; but all lilies are not thus. The great dragon-tree, as it is called, is still a lily; and as though Nature desired to confound our prejudices by one bold master-stroke, these dragon-trees are amongst the largest and the oldest, if not the very largest and very oldest, of known trees. The great dragon-tree of Orotava, in the island of Teneriffe, * an accurate representation of which is given below, is of such dimensions that ten full-grown men, joining hand to hand, are scarcely sufficient to encircle its base. It is now about four hundred and seventy years ago since the island of Teneriffe was first discovered. The great dragon-tree of Orotava was then, as it is now, the twin wonder of that island, dividing its interest with that of the stupendous peak. Precise accounts have been handed down to us of its size, from a consideration of which it appears that the monster has increased but very little in dimensions since that time—a probability which is still further confirmed by

* One of the Canary Islands, a group in the Atlantic Ocean, about sixty miles S.W. from the coast of Marocco, belonging to Spain. They were supposed to have been known to the ancients as the "Fortunate Isles." The earliest discovery, however, of these islands of which we have any authentic account was made by De Bethencourt, a Norman, about 1400, and they were purchased from his descendants and annexed to Spain about eighty years after. The famous Peak of Teneriffe is 12,180 feet above the level of the sea.