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Show The Oldest of Treei. As to the ages of trees, it la cot ti oak which is, as Dryden, or aac:::" has it, the "patriarch." The o'.:;s trees on earth are the trqrnendoii! lfers standing In one of the fornian valleys. Older than Abrai: they have rolled around with t world, alive, for many more cer.-.: i than any mere oak; and notlonjU' one of them fell. There he lies, i:i you climb his side by a ladder. A:! , the rest or many of them a" J their last few centuries, as i er'lr from their dwindling tops. That is what surprises the tc:r.s that having lived through h:" history they are now dying. Ti;j are now cared for, if things o Btrs: ( and so august can be said to owe t?' thing to man's care; but man for t - , dreds of decades gave them usage; their hollows are black J , the fires lighted within by Indlaa t i tions long vanished. London C-"-' t cle. |