SOME FACTS ABOUT TREES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 743, 6 February 1915, Page 7

SOME FACTS ABOUT TREES.

The tallest trees in the world are the Australian eucalyptus, which ■ attain an altitude of 480 feet. The biggest are the mammoth trees of California, - some of which are 276 to 373 in height, .••and 108 feet in circumference at the base. ' From measurements of the rings it is believed that certain of these trees; are from 2000 to 2500 years old. The oldest tree in the world'is said to exist on the island of Cos, off the coast of Asia M'inor. It is several thousand years old, but just how many -no one has dared to say. The tree is carefully preserved! by a wall of masonry around it, and the trunk is 30. feet in circumference. But there are parts of trees in the form of useful timber which are even older, probably, than any on the stump. Beams in old buildings are preserved to-day which are known to be over a thousand years old. Piles driven by the Romans prior to the Christian era are perfectly sound today, and it is known that they have been immersed in water for upward of two thousand years. Some woods have remarkably durable properties' when immersed in water. They decay rapidly, on the stump, many rotting in from five to ten years ; but when •' immersed in water they last longer than iron or steel. An effort has been made by our Government to preserve , woods indefinitely by treating' them with oils and tar products. Already telegraph poles and railway ties have, had their average life extended from five to ten years by this process.—•, "Harper's Weekly."