File:Greatest wonders of the world (1906) (14769546015).jpg

Identifier: greatestwonderso00sing (find matches)
Title: Greatest wonders of the world
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Singleton, Esther, d. 1930
Subjects: Curiosities and wonders Landscapes
Publisher: New York, The Christian Herald
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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But we should observe, that the Adansonia,like the ochroma, and all the plants of the family of bom-bax, grow much more rapidly than the dracaena, the vegeta-tion of which is very slow. That in M. Franquis gardenstill bears every year both flowers and fruit. Its aspectforcibly exemplifies that eternal youth of nature, whichis an inexhaustible source of motion and of life. The draccena^ which is seen only in cultivated spots inthe Canary Islands, at Madeira, and Porto Santo, presentsa curious phenomenon with respect to the emigration ofplants. It has never been found in a wild state on thecontinent of Africa. The East Indies is its real country.How has this tree been transplanted to TenerifFe, where itis by no means common ? Does its existence prove, that,at some very distant period, the Guanches had connexionswith other nations originally from Asia ? ^ The form of the dragon-tree is exhibited in several species of thegenus Dracaena, at the Cape of Good Hope, in China, and in New Zea-
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THE DRAGON TREE. THE DRAGON-TREE OF OROTAVA l8l The age of trees is marked by their size, and the unionof age with the manifestation of constantly renewed vigouris a charm peculiar to the vegetable kingdom. The gigan-tic Dragon-tree of Orotava (as sacred in the eyes of theinhabitants of the Canaries as the olive-tree in the Citadelof Athens, or the Elm of Ephesus), the diameter of whichI found, when I visited those islands, to be more than six-teen feet, had the same colossal size when the French ad-venturers, the Bethencourts, conquered these gardens of theHesperides in the beginning of the Fifteenth Century; yetit still flourishes, as if in perpetual youth, bearing flowers andfruit. A tropical forest of Hymenaeas and Caesalpinieaemay perhaps present to us a monument of more than athousand years standing. This colossal dragon-tree, Draccsna draco^ stands in oneof the most delightful spots in the world. In June, 1799,when we ascended the Peak of Teneriffe, we measured thecircumference

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