Trees
Until 1984, the Botanical Garden boasted a Vitex agnus-castus (chaste tree) that dated from at least 1550. At present, the oldest plant is a palm planted in 1585 called the "Goethe palm", because the poet referred to it in his essay "The Metamorphoses of Plants"; this tree is situated in a greenhouse inside the Ortus Sphearicus, where there is also a ginkgo and a magnolia dating back to the mid-18th century, which are regarded as the oldest specimens in Europe. A gigantic plane tree in the outside Arboretum dates from 1680; it has a hollow trunk, owing to a lightning strike. In the Arboretum there is also a sectioned trunk of an elm tree, which died in 1991, with marked year rings.
Read more about this topic: Orto Botanico Di Padova
Famous quotes containing the word trees:
“It was a tangled and perplexing thicket, through which we stumbled and threaded our way, and when we had finished a mile of it, our starting-point seemed far away. We were glad that we had not got to walk to Bangor along the banks of this river, which would be a journey of more than a hundred miles. Think of the denseness of the forest, the fallen trees and rocks, the windings of the river, the streams emptying in, and the frequent swamps to be crossed. It made you shudder.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If someone were to think that trees are made to support the sky, they would all seem too short.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“an endless wind
Whips at the headstones of the dead and wails
In the trees for all who have and have not sinned.”
—Anthony Hecht (b. 1923)