The Natural History of Selborne 44.5 



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 inconvenience. 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. 



RENOVATION OF LEAVES, 



WHEN oaks are quite stripped of their leaves by chaffers, they are 

 clothed again soon after Midsummer with a beautiful foliage : but 

 beeches, horse-chestnuts, and maples, once defaced by those insects, 

 never recover their beauty again for the whole season. WHITE. 



ASH TREES. 



MANY ash trees bear loads of keys every year, others never seem to 

 bear any at all. The prolific ones are naked of leaves and unsightly ; 

 those that are sterile abound in foliage, and carry their verdure a 

 long while, and are pleasing objects. WHITE. 



BEECH. 



BEECHES love to grow in crowded situations, and will insinuate 

 themselves through the thickest covert, so as to surmount it all : 

 they are therefore proper to mend thin places in tall hedges. 

 WHITE. 



