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.)
T. G.
Arrangement of Books (Vol. v., p. 49.).
—Your correspondent L.'s letter is very valuable. May I add a few contributions?
There is a mode of printing used in Cuvier's Règne Animal, which is exceedingly useful for books of classification, that is, to print those sentences which relate to the primary divisions in a larger type, and full up to the side; the subdivisions to be printed short, as sums are entered in an account book, and in a smaller type. I believe I had the fortune to introduce a slight improvement in indexes. For instance, in your index the subordinate items are arranged according to time, but that gives a great deal of trouble. Under MR. BREEN'S name there are fifteen items; they should be arranged alphabetically, like the principal items, as is done in the same index in the case of notices of books, unavoidably. But such subordinate items had better, in general, have the word on which the alphabetical arrangement turns printed in Italics to catch the eye, rather than invert the order of the words, as must be done in the principal items.
In what books the old spelling should be retained is a matter of individual question, upon which no rules can be laid down. Walpole complained that the Paston Letters were printed with the old spelling, and that, though a version is on the opposite page; but few persons will agree with him in that. In such books we have a right to see the old spelling in order to judge whether the version is right, as well as for general information.
C. B.
The Ring-finger (Vol. iv., pp. 150. 198. 261.).
—The two questions mooted concerning the ring-finger, i.e. why the third finger is the ring-finger, and why the wedding-ring is worn on the third finger of the left hand? have not yet been satisfactorily answered.