154 



SO long as the branches are alive, and of 

 course in need of support, so long nature 

 administers it, by the sap-vessels going 

 along, and round them ; but so soon as 

 they are dead, though remaining in the 

 same place, such vessels, or caterers, take 

 a different direction. See the top-parts 

 of No. 2, and 3, where the branches have 

 the bark remaining upon them, an evi- 

 dent proof that so far they were dead. — 

 In a subsequent plate we shall be ena- 

 bled to shew, that the direction the ves- 

 sels take in the last instance, is directly 

 calculated to heal the wounds, made by 

 taking oif branches. 



This plate is an exact representation of 

 a Larch Board ; but it makes no differ- 

 ence, what is the subject, as the internal 

 structure of all the trees we know of is 

 the same. No. 4, is the curving, occa- 

 sioned by a branch on the other side of 

 the board ; the dark part, on the right of 

 the figure, is some bark which the plane 



