385 



OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 



TREES, ORDER OF LOSING THEIR LEAVES. 



ONE of the first trees that become naked is the 

 walnut ; the mulberry, the ash, especially if it bears 

 many keys, and the horse-chestnut come next. All 

 lopped trees, while their heads are young, carry 

 their leaves a long while. Apple-trees and peaches 

 remain green very late, often till the end of Novem- 

 ber: young beeches never cast their leaves till spring, 

 till the new leaves sprout and push them off: in the 

 autumn, the beechen leaves turn of a deep chestnut 

 colour. Tall beeches cast their leaves about the end 

 of October. WHITE. 



SIZE AND GROWTH. Mr. Marsham, of Stratton, 

 near Norwich, informs me by letter thus : "I became 

 a planter early ; so that an oak, which I planted in 

 1720, is become now, at one foot from the earth, 

 12 feet 6 inches in circumference, and, at 14 feet, 

 (the half of the timber length,) is 8 feet 2 inches. 

 So, if the bark were to be measured as timber, the 

 tree gives 116| feet, buyer's measure. Perhaps you 

 never heard of a larger oak, while the planter was 

 living. I flatter myself that I increased the growth 

 by washing the stem, and digging a circle, as far as 

 I supposed the roots to extend, and by spreading 

 sawdust, &c., as related in the Phil. Trans. I wish 



