Show louisiana tree ree 2500 years old edenborn brake Is placed by scientists as fifth oldest living thing new orleans the fifth oldest known ahing thing on earth and the third oldest in borth orth america is a giant cypress tree in u what bat Is known aa as the edenborn brake in inina inn parish this state according to carleton F poole of the louisiana state conser department the age of the tree has tins been placed at 2500 pears by prof herman Sch reak of st louis and other tista who have examined it accord ing to records it la Is exceeded in ion ge ity only by the santa maria marls del tule cypress c press near ounce mexico to years old the dragon tree at orotava Or otava island of teneriffe 4 OW years old the sequoia trees callior Call for nia years old and the baobab tree senegal years old the edenborn cypress was budding into life when hen jerusalem was taken by it wag was a lasty fusty young sprout when the battles of marathon and thermopylae were fought when assyria was wa at the apex of the world dominion and when rome was a tillage village of mud roads and hovels the tree was mas COO year years old when uben christ was born in bethlehem a vet eran when the roman legions we were re withdrawn from britain to leave the savage tribes of those islands to fight out their differences and was more than 2000 years old when columbus sailed into the atlantic to begin bis his voyage of discovery the tree was one of a number of its kind in a tract of pine timber purchased by william edenborn some years ago and when logging began be he refused to permit it and three others almost as a large to be felled although the giant contains approximately 23 WO feet of lumber it Is peculiarly situated for one of its species ip ecles for while the cypress usually grows in swamps the edenborn specimen stands in a hollow between be teen hills bills one of the three cypresses left standing with it was felled by a storm some months mouths ago mr edenborn has offered the aged giant and its two companions to the conservation department part ment to do with as it sees fit ot so long as none Is injured the department plans construction of a highway to them so that the spot may be visited more easily by tourists and home folk |