56 S Y L V A BOOK in 



rational and probable) insomuch, that by cutting a 

 tree transverse, and drawing a diameter through the 

 broadest and narrowest parts of the rings, a meridian 

 line may be described. 



The outer spaces are generally narrower than the 

 inner, not only in their narrower sides, but also on 

 their broader, compared with the same sides of the 

 inner : Notwithstanding which, they are for the most 

 part, if not altogether, bigger upon the whole ac- 

 count. 



Of these spaces, the outer extremities in fir, and 

 the like woods, that have them larger and grosser, are 

 more dense, hard, and compact ; the inner more soft 

 and spungy ; by which difference of substance it is, 

 that the rings themselves come to be distinguished. 



According as the bodies and boughs of trees, or 

 several parts of the same, are bigger or lesser, so is 

 the number, as well as the breadth of the circular 

 spaces greater or less ; and the like, according to the 

 age, especially the number. 



It is commonly, and very probably asserted, that a 

 tree gains a new one every year. In the body of a 

 great oak in the New-Forest, cut transversely even 

 (where many of the trees are accounted to be some 

 hundreds of years old) three and four hundred have 

 been distinguished. In a fir-tree, which is said to 

 have just so many rows of boughs about it, as it is of 

 years growth, there has been observed just one less, 

 immediately above one row, than immediately below. 

 Hence some probable account may be given of the 

 difference between the outer, and the inner parts of 

 the rings, that the outermost being newly produced 

 in the Summer, the exterior superficies is condens'd 

 in the Winter. 



