World's Oldest Living Thing.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 24 April 1914, Page 2

World's Oldest Living Thing.

-4 BEATS THE GREAT PYRAMID. On the firing line of the Zapata uprising in southern Mexico, in peril from cannon fire and musketry, stood—and still stands—the oldest living thing in the world—the famous cypress in the churchyard of the village, of Santa Maria del Tule. The tree is situated in the intendancy of Oaxaca, two and one-half leagues east of that city. The disturbances attending the insurrection against Madero postpone^ temporarily the attainment of the supreme ambition held by Dr. Herman Yon Schrenk, which is to determine scientifically the approximate age of this patriarch of the vegetable kingdom. 'Experts, judging by the. gigantic bole of the Santa del Tule cypress and by the slow growth of this species, have, according to Mr. Robert H. Moulton, whom we quote, estimated the age of the monster to be between 5,000 and 6,000 years. These figures are staggering to the imagination. Taking the lowest computation, when the seed from which the tree sprang fell upon the earth, King Menes was reigning in Egypt— HOOO [5.C. When Cheops drove his .subjects with the lash to the labour of building the Great Pyramid, it was a slender stripling of 1200 years. And it had reached a Lusty youth of 1,500 years, when the Hebrews made their exodus from the land of the Nile. The discovery of America and the conquest of Mexico by Cortex would seem, in its life, things of only a few months ago. The last scientific measurement of the Santa Maria del Tule cypress was made by Dr. Yon Schrenk in 190:5, a century after Hurnboldt discovered it, while on his famous tour of equatorial America. Dr. Yon Schrenk found that its trunk, four feet from the ground, had the astounding girth of 126 feet. Before the broad and towering bulk of this one life, which has persisted without interruption since the date of (.he dawning of history, Dr. Yon Schrenk on his first visit haltedin awe. Had the folkiged creature possessed eyes and a tongue, what tre suit's of information could it have added to the annals of man ! What revolutions ,in Mexico it could have related ; what rises and foils of monarchies and civilisations in tropical America ! But (lights of fancy gave way to immediate scientific duties. Autho- ' rities on trees had declared the dis- ; covery of the approximate age of this cypress to be one of the most important problems in arboriculture. They had expressed a hope that the next scientist who £:hould visit the ancient living monument would not fail to complete the evidence needed. The Mayor of Santa Maria del Tule, however, opposed a barrier of adamant. Measure the circumference of the tree ? Surely. Photograph it ? Indeed, yes. But to take an instrument and bore from the trunk a plug two feet deep and one-half an inch in diameter ? Horrors, no. In vain Dr. Yon Schrenk urged that this experiment had been made i hundreds of times without damage |to the trees, and that by counting the rings shown on the plug he could learn the tree's average rate of. growth and thus .solve one of the great scientific. problems of the world. The Mayor was all humility and subinissiveness. Anything he possessed was at the disposition of the distinguished official. But ■ touch the tree he should not. ; vSo Dr. Yon Schrenk was compelled to content himself with measuring the bole, and with taking from the roof of the city hall the photograph. Me also observed a wood tablet which llumboldt. one hundred years before, had nailed to the tree, the unimpaired vitality of which, for all its fifty centuries, had been shown by a growth of bark covering the tablet.—"Popular Science SifLiags,"