©1? THE INTERTQR OP PLANTS* J| 



wnderstand the nature and progress of buds in^ll pUintg/ 

 except the cryptojj^amia and water-pUnts. These I am deeply 

 studying; and I flatter myself it will not be long before I 

 shall be able to complete ray sketch in this respect. — I sball New practlcei 

 now endeavour to account for the cause of the succeeding ^^ gardening, 

 of various means lately adopted in gardening, and show the 

 reason that success attends such practices. All that For- Why For- 

 syth did to old trees, was to take from them the rotten ^J^^^*^'^'^^^'^®* 

 part, which wholly checked the growth of the albumen, 

 by soaking vip the juices, which should have produced it ; 

 but the sap once returned to its usual office, forming the 

 »ew wood, or albumen, gave an increased vigour to the lir^e 

 of life, which, when the rotten pi^rt w^s cut away, had room 

 to shoot afresh, and by a quicker circulation of the sap re- 

 newed the vigour of every part of the plant. Scarcely haa 

 the year power to run its ususal circle, before a tree so reani* 

 mated will begin to shoot at the yery heart; the little pith ,^ 



to be found in so old a tree can hardly raise moisture 

 enough for the innumerable buds, which form in every part, 

 onthe line of life; beginning at the dilapidated part, and sooQ 

 communicating to all the rest. It is astonishing what good may 

 be done, by thus now and then paring away a part, that ap-f 

 pears to be beginning to decay : but then it must be cut with 

 great c^re. And covered with the plaster ordered by Forsyth, 

 which is excellent ; and not left to contract the rot. The The presert;!' 

 dried stump of a tree, or the remains of a broken limb, tive to th* 

 may in a very few years (by this management) be the source 

 ©f new shoots, more than equal to those before lost; and 

 though I believe with that philosophic observer Mr. Knight, 

 that there is a term of life and vigour, beyond which a tree 

 cannot pass : yet it is certain, that it is a very ancient time, 

 »nd that almost all our trees die from careless inattention, 

 «nd probably at half their proper age. 



There is a strange idea universally spread among physio* Sap ina trte 

 logists, arising (I must think) from our ignorance of the in* "*'^"' ■**K'' 

 terior formation of plants, but universally received as a 

 truth; that as wood grows old, it contracts in form, till all 

 the passages of the fluids are stopped, and it remains ina 

 kind of torpid state, till it dies. This idea appears to me 

 Id be so contradicted by all | have seen in nature, by mv 



^9UFljr 



