it is certainly very near the typical form ; but still, on the whole, we are inclined to regard it as a representative
species produced by climate, the difference being too great to allow it to be considered as specifically
identical.
History.—We have no information of a pateontological character specially relating to this variety; but
we know, from the living specimens remaining, that its duration on the face of the globe must have been
very long—nay, that the life of the individual specimens themselves must have probably begun at a date
before the most antient records of the history of man.
To say that some of the present trees were as old as the Incas is nothing. It would probably be
strictly true to say that they were, to outward appearance, as old in their time as they are now. It is not by
hundreds of years that their age must be counted, but by thousands.
We have already mentioned that the tree at Santa Maria del Tule in Oaxaca is no less than 200 feet in
circumference. How many years must it have taken to build up such a trunk by the slow process of the
annual deposit of a slender ring ? There is nothing exceptionally rapid in the growth of these trees—we should
rather call them slow-growing. If we take one line (the twelfth of an inch) of growth to be the average
breadth of annual deposit, that would give nearly 9000 years as its age. But Zuccarini, in his estimate,
thinks it safer to assume one-sixth of a line as the average, which would make it six times as old. We
have seen that in Louisiana the largest stems of the typical Taxodium distir.hum which are spoken of, are
40 and 41 feet in circumference, and the largest number of rings which are mentioned as having been
counted is 2000. Then, if 40 feet in circumference is equal to an age of 2000 years, 80 feet certainly
should not mean less than 4000, 117 not less than 6000, and 200 not less than 10,000 years. But we
know that, after a certain age has been reached, the deposit of wood becomes smaller and smaller as the tree
gets older: consequently, to take the same ratio as the measure of age for a tree of 117 feet, as one of 40
feet in girth, would be unreasonable.
The next largest trees are two, both near the City of Mexico. One in the gardens of Chapultepec,
which may be seen in the accompanying woodcut figure of that palace—the large tree to the left; and
the other, the tree under which Cortez passed the night, known as the Noche tristc, after the defeat and
expulsion of the Spaniards from Mexico, of which our coloured plate is a portrait, taken from a photograph.
Culture.—The culture of this variety differs from that of the type only in the greater care that is necessary
on account of its more tender constitution. In England it is rarely met with, and we know of none of
any size. Professor Koch mentions it as not growing on the Continent further to the north than the southwest
of Germany and south-west of France, viz., at Angers, in the gardens of M. Leroy, celebrated for
remarkable Conifers.