OLDEST LIVING THINGS IN THE WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 130, 19 October 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

OLDEST LIVING THINGS IN THE WORLD

CALIFORNJAN TREES 4000 YEARS OLD. According to a United States Government bulletin, the oldest living things in the .world are the Sequoia trees in the General Grant and Sequoia National Parks, California. It is estimated that some of these were growing 4000 years ago. Fifteen centuries would seem to be quite a respectable spell of existence, but at this age these extraordinary trees are in the bloom of youth, and at 2000 years they are in their prime. It is not only in respect of longevity that the Sequoias are remarkable. They are the tallest trees known, and in the two parks there are no fewer than 1-2,000 larger than ten feet in diameter.

Many of these forest giants bear the names'of eminent Americans. The General Sherman is 286 feet high and 36 feet in diameter, the Abraham Lincoln 270 feet high and 81 feet in diameter, the General Grant 264 feet high and 35 feet in diameter, the George Washington 255 feet high and 29 feet in diameter, and the tallest is the William McKinley, •201 feet high and 38 feet in diameter.^ It does not appear whether there is a ''Theodore Roosevelt" Sequoia yet, but it is inconceivable that there should not be a specially virile specimen reserved for the strenuous Colonel.

The N.Z. kauri tree 'has a longer life than the Sequoia, it being estimated at 10,000 to 12,000 years. The totara is also a "long-liver," being placed at from 4000 to 5000 years.