380 Miscellanies. 
with life quite to its end, and seemed to be as vigorous as the other. 
The trunk and limbs of B extend twenty feet beyond the limb which 
unites the two trees. 
It is evident that it is the sap of 4, which is elaborated in B, and 
is employed for its support. It is probable that the vessels in the part 
of the limb which unites the trees and in which the sap originally as- 
cended are now used for the passage of the sap from 4 to B. In 
this case the vessels for the ascending sap perform their usual function 
through most of the uniting limb, and their action is inverted in the 
uniting part. 
Rochester, N. Y., March 29, 1837. 
6. Rotting of timber in certain situations.—Extract of a letter 
to the editor, from Mr. D. Tomlinson of Schenectady, N. Y., da- 
ted April 4, 1836.—In the year 1801, I built a ware-house on my 
lot in Union Street in Schenectady. The cellar was dug about four 
feet deep, and the stone wall a foot or two deeper. I left no open- 
ing in the walls for door or window. The floor beams were of ex- 
cellent pitch pine timber of twelve by twelve inches, slit, and were 
six by twelve inches when placed in the wall, and about eighteen inch- 
es above the ground. [ laid a floor of three inch oak plank, loose, 
neither jointed nor nailed, although they were square edge, and lay 
close toeach other. Five years thereafter, I observed a jostling ina 
_place in the floor, and raised one of the planks to learn the cause, and 
found one of the six by twelve inch beams rotted off and fallen on 
the bottom of the cellar. The plank was rotten below, except about 
an inch sound on the upper side. TI lifted the whole floor, found 
most of the planks rotten, except a shell on the top; and the timbers 
were rotten, and so decayed, that | took them out and put in oak, 
after making windows and a door in opposite sides of the wall. I 
thought the depth of the cellar would have prevented injury to the 
timber, but found it the cause of the destruction, as fine shavings and 
slivers lying on the bottom of the cellar, were perfectly sound, while 
the timbers, were beautifully ornamented with curtains of white mold, 
hanging in festoons, nearly to the depthilf the cellar, as white as 
snow, very thick, and appeared like bleached muslin. 
In the year 1817, 1 took down an old kitchen on the same lot. 
The floor had lain on saplings of about 6 by 8 inches, such as are 
used for scaffold poles. They were bedded in the ground, so that 
the pine floor caine next the ground, and excluded air. They 
