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Ofi the Revival of Subterranean Willows (Salix aquatiea.) 

 By Mr James Hardt. 



Nee prior mundi, Rosa morte dira 



Nostra peribit. 



Sib Robebt Sibbald. 



Tom up by stf rma and placed in earth once more, 

 The younger tree may Bun and soil restore ; 

 But when the old and sapless trunk lies low. 

 No care or soil can former life bestow ; 

 Reserved for burning is the worthless tree. 



Cbabbx. 



** Som trees grow easely and encrease with spede, as they that 

 aryse up by rivers or waters, as the elm tree, the playn tree, the 

 water asp, and the wylow tre." The observation is that of Theo- 

 phrastus, the distinguished disciple of a still more celebrated master. 

 Besides the exuberance of the vital principle with which these trees 

 teem, advancing their growth beyond the slowly attained bulk and 

 maturity of the nobler denizens of the forest, and issuing forth in 

 prodigality of rank shoot and scion, when accident or injury endangers 

 the existence of the parental trunk, they possess in the structure of 

 their roots and stems, independent of their numerous fledged seeds, 

 expedients for perpetuating the race, to an indefinite extent. In the 

 elm, this power resides especially in the root, which, when divided 

 or wounded, emits from the incisure, with prolific effusion, a progeny 

 of vivacious saplings, each more prompt than its fellow to repair the 

 threatened curtailment of Nature's fertility. In the willows and 

 allied tribes, this office is consigned to a series of protuberant eye- 

 like specks (lenticelke) distributed at intervals over the bark, from 

 which, when a section of the tree has been inserted beneath the soil, 

 as from germinating seed, tender radicles protrude their rosy, sap- 

 absorbing fibres ; while, from those placed beyond the reach of the 

 subterranean influence, a profuse array of twig and branch, edged 

 with broad ample foliage, attests the vigorous and overmantling 

 abundance of the procreative animus with which every slip and frag- 

 ment is indued. An instance of the long continued resistance to the 

 insidious encroachments of decay and dissolution, that, invested in this 

 impregnate panoply, the latter tree is enabled to present, has recently 

 been observed ; which, as an addition to the curious particulars al- 



