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a piece of vegetable violence of this kind, 

 which is rather extraordinary. An afh-key 

 rooting itfelf on a decayed willow ; and find- 

 ing, as it increafed, a deficiency of nourifhment 

 in the mother-plant, it began to infmuate its 

 fibres by degrees through the trunk of the 

 willow into the earth. There receiving an 

 additional recruit, it began to thrive, and 

 expand itfelf to fuch a fize, that it burft the 

 willow in pieces, which fell away from it on 

 every fide ; and what was before the root of 

 the am, being now expofed to the air, became 

 the folid trunk of a vigorous tree. 



As a beautiful variety of the tree we are 

 now examining, the mountain-afi, often called 

 the roan tree, fhould be mentioned. Its name 

 denotes the place of its ufual refidence. 

 Inured to cold, and rugged fcenes, it is the 

 hardy inhabitant of the northern parts of this 

 ifland. Sometimes it is found in fofter climes ; 

 but there it generally difcovers by it's flunted 

 growth, that it does not occupy the fituation 

 it loves. 



In ancient days, when fuperftition held that 

 place in fociety, which diffipation, and impiety 

 now hold, the mountain-afh was confidered 

 as an objecl: of great veneration. Often at 



this 



