Eye.
Cypress trees on the continent of America grow to immense ages. By
counting the concentric rings observed in the wood, on sawing a trunk
across, it appears that 400 years is a common age. There is a gigantic
trunk near Santa Maria del Tula, in the province of Oaxaca, in Mexico,
whose circumference at the dilated base is no less than 200 feet. Of
this, taking 1·6 line as the average growth of a year, the age would be
3512 years. (Lyell's _Second Visit to United States_, vol. ii. pp. 254,
255. Prescott's _Peru_, vol. ii. p. 315. 4th edition.) Adanson, the
celebrated botanist, calculated the age of one of the famous Baobab
trees of Senegal to be 5150 years. (Marquis of Ormonde's _Sicily_, p.
76.) A tamarind tree in the Mahometan burial-ground at Putelam, in
Ceylon, is 39 feet in diameter, or upwards of 117 feet in circumference,
from which the age may be calculated on the above scale. (Sirr's
_Ceylon_, vol. i. p. 85.)