The Arizona Sentinel

Age of Trees,
[From the New York Times]
Elm, 300 years; ivy, 335 years.
maple, 516 years; larch, 576 years;
orange, 630 years; cypress, 800
years; olive, 800 years; walnut, 900
years; oriental plane, 1000 years;
lime, 1100 years; spruce, 1200 years;
oak, 1500 years; cedar, 2000 years;
yew, 3200 years. The way
in which the age of these trees have
been ascertained leaves no doubt
of its correctness. In some few
cases the data have been furnished
by historical records and by traditions,
but the botanical archaeologists
have a resource independent
of either, and, when carefully used,
is infallible.
Of all the forms of nature, trees
alone disclose their ages candidly
and freely, in the stems of trees
which have branches and leaves
with netted veins-in all exogens,
as the botanist would say-the increase
takes place by means of an
annual deposit of wood, spread in
an even layer upon the surface of
the preceding one.
In the earlier periods of life trees
increase much faster than when
adult-the oak, for instance, grows
more rapidly between the 20th and
30th years-and when old the annual deposit considerably diminish,
so that the strata are thinner and
the rings proportionately closer.
Some trees slacken in rate of growth
at a very early period of life, and
layers of oak become thinner after
40, those of the elm after 50, those
of the yew after 60.