THE TALLEST TREE.

Mataura Ensign, 30 June 1914, Page 2

THE TALLEST TREE.

fA writer to 'The Daily Mail' from Portland, Oregon, records a flag-pole 246 ft long (writes a correspondenb of 'The Daily Mail'). The tree from which this was made must have been considerably higher. Visitors to the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1888 will remember the photograph of a large gum tree, or eucalyptus,' which the photographer stated was 464 ft high. That seemed a definite statement. It so excited the Australian public that the trustees of the Public Library, Melbourne, voted £IOO, the trustees of the Exhibition Building another £IOO, the Minister for Lands promised a sum not exceeding £BOO to have this arboreal .monster accurately measured. Alter some hesitation on the part of, the photographer the particular tree was found". It was just 219 ft. in heigat. Hon. James Monroei, Premier of Victoria, thereupon offered a reward of £IOO, out of his own pocket, for 'a Victorian tree 400 ft. in height, and t'hat reward still remains unclaimed. Professor Sargent, an eminent authority ou arboriculture, gives the actual measurements of the largest known redwood of California at 340 ft. high with a girth round the' trunk of 107 ft., and these dimensions have not, to my knowledge, been yet surpassed.