NOTES AND QUERIES
199
Dating ancient trees is difficult because recorded dates of planting of trees before this century are very rare. The precise age of the biggest conifers may be ascertained, within reasonable limits by counting the annual rings. However, there are limitations on the application of this method when applied to ancient trees. In their later years, ancient trees maintain their viability with only a few leaves and they scarcely grow at all. During this period, increases in girth are extremely small, and are of no value in assessing age for these two trees: Mr. Man's account is the best guide to their growth.
Observations show that both trees have lost their crowns and survive only on a few green branches, giving the appearance of aged trees, and it is certainly possible that they may be as old as the Village Representative claims. One tree is now 50 feet tall and 6 feet 9 inches in girth. From 30 feet up it has few limbs which still leaf out to the tip. The other is now 61 feet tall and 5 feet 5 inches in girth. From 30 feet up, it has a few limbs but two of these have died back. These data represent trees of considerable size. Thus it appears that the Chinese Deciduous Cypress can grow to a considerable stature, despite the fact that Dallimore and Jackson in their Handbook of Coniferae (1954) described the species as "a small tree". It could be that the information given by Dallimore and Jackson quoted a description from Canton where, I have been told by my colleagues, no trees as big as these two remain living and only small ones exist. The form of these two trees is good, with a single bole, round and straight. They are also in reasonably healthy condition; one bole has no hole in it, and the second has a shallow cavity which is healing well and shows strong callus formation around the edge of the wound. There is no sign of fungal decay or pest attack anywhere. Because of their rarity, they are in fact registered seed trees of the Conservation and Forests Division, Agriculture and Fisheries Department.* The wood of this species is said to be very durable, light and fragrant, and to be used for making boats and life rafts. Boat people in the Pearl River Delta traditionally tie a piece of this wood on their children's backs for safety.
The Village Representative recollected an interesting point concerning these two trees. Some 20 years ago, the then Forestry Department distributed seedlings raised from the seed of these trees to
* See Plate 30.