52 THE PRACTICAL PLANTEK. 



becomes stinted, about the twentieth or thir- 

 tieth year of its age ; or when the roots have 

 exhausted the upper soil, and begin to seek 

 pasturage in the sub-soil; insomuch, that 

 the worms attack it on its limbs, anticipating, 

 as it were, its dissolution.* 



I have been told by one, to whom I would 

 allow as much credit as any single person I 

 have yet known, that, of a Fir-tree, the pro- 

 duce of one of the hills on the estate of Appin 

 in Argyleshire, he made a peg of half art 

 inch diameter; and, with a single stroke of 

 a wooden mallet, drove it through an oaken 

 table an inch thick, which was, perhaps, a 

 century old. 



* This has not a little arrested the attention, and ex- 

 cited the wonder, of several ingenious people of my ac- 

 quaintance. Every gardener will admit, that, until a 

 plant become unhealthy, we never discover the presence 

 or ravages of insects. Are Onions attacked by mag- 

 gots, until rendered unhealthy, or checked in growth, by 

 parching drought ? Does the coccus, &c. attack Peach- 

 trees while they are kept clean, and in a free, growing 

 state ? Are the roots of Pine- Apples, and also their leaves, 

 perforated or eaten by the pine bug, &c. while in a 

 thriving condition, although these insects abound in the 

 hot-house ? Will ever a plant become sickly, if not from 

 age, whose culture is industriously studied, and which is 

 placed in soil and situation congenial to its nature ?. 



