THE SUCCESSIVE OAKS. 290 



collect it for them, but for himself for the gratifi- 

 cation of his desire of possession. The man who 

 plants wishes to have something to look at, and to 

 have it as speedily as possible, and that, with the 

 other circumstances that have been noticed, con- 

 spires to cover the rich districts of the country with 

 growing rubbish, which, when it comes to be cut 

 down, is fit only for firewood, and very inferior for 

 that. To obtain good timber by cultivation appears 

 then to be very difficult, if not altogether impossible ; 

 but still it is highly necessary that the causes should 

 be known. But let us return to the merely de- 

 scriptive part of the subject : " the hundred oaks in 

 a hundred years." 



Well, the plant of the first year continues to send 

 down a root, and push out rootlets, and to elevate a 

 stem, put out leaves, and show the germe of a bud 

 or buds, until it has attained a certain size, and then 

 it pauses for the year. During the whole time of 

 its growth, the whole consistence is soft and juicy, 

 and though there are vessels in it, they are not very 

 easily seen by the naked eye. But when the en- 

 largement of bulk ceases, a new action takes place, 

 the whole gradually becomes more firm, and if it is 

 cut across, the pulpy substance will be found sepa- 

 rated into a central piece and a ring, with an inter- 

 vening ray of pellicle, as well as another on the 

 outside. 



The centre piece is the pith, which, as the season 

 advances, renders up its moisture to the other parts, 

 becomes spongy, and shrinks in bulk, as if its object 

 were accomplished. The ring of pellicle next 

 to it is the young wood, which may be observed 

 shooting as the season advances, the external ring 

 is the bark, and the pulpy matter between is the 

 substance furnished by the roots, and prepared, and 

 also in part furnished, by the leaves out of which the 

 wood and bark are forming. All these parts are ex- 

 clusive of the epidermis, or mere external covering, 



