VEGETABLES. 469 



The great oak in the Holt, which is deemed by Mr. 

 Marsham to be the biggest in this island, at 7 feet from the 

 ground, measures in circumference 34 feet. It has in old 

 times lost several of its boughs, and is tending to decay. 

 Mr. Marsham computes, that at 14 feet length this oak 

 contains 1000 feet of timber. 



It has been the received opinion that trees grow in height 

 only by their annual upper shoot. But my neighbour over 

 the way, whose occupation confines him to one spot, assures 

 me that trees are expanded and raised in the lower parts also. 

 The reason that he gives is this : the point of one of my firs 

 began for the first time to peep over an opposite roof at the 

 beginning of summer; but before the growing season was 

 over, the whole shoot of the year, and three or four joints of 

 the body beside, became visible to him as he sits on his form 

 in his shop. According to this supposition, a tree may 

 advance in height considerably, though the summer shoot 

 should be destroyed every year. WHITE. 



FLOWING OF SAP. 



If the bough of a vine is cut late in the spring, just before 

 the shoots push out, it will bleed considerably ; but after the 

 leaf is out, any part may be taken off without the least incon- 

 venience. So oaks may be barked while the leaf is budding ; 

 but as soon as they are expanded, the bark will no longer part 

 from the wood, because the sap that lubricates the bark and 

 makes it part, is evaporated off through the leaves. WHITE. 



other places. There exists now a row of remarkably fine beeches, which 

 may be the result of this custom : they have all the character of the 

 great beech acknowledged by him ; and are apparently about the same 

 age. There are maples of remarkable size and beauty which may very 

 possibly claim the same origin. Of the more aged trees, occupants of the 

 same ground, which must have been objects of interest to Gilbert White, 

 the most remarkable is the ancient Wych-elm, described in the note at 

 page 5. An enormous pollard ash, still in full vigour, must have been a 

 fine old tree in his time. Its girth immediately below the spreading of 

 the branches (the narrowest part) is 16 feet ; and it is 91 feet high. T. B.] 



