CAUSES OF INFERTILITY IN TBEES. 55 



the middle, and six at the smaller end where 

 broken off; so that the butt for sixty feet squared 

 seven feet of timber, and four its entire length. 

 Twenty pounds were offered for this tree *. This 

 extraordinary vegetable should have been preserved 

 in some museum, as unequalled in ancient, unap- 

 proachable in modern days ; exceeding in magni- 

 tude even that famous larch brought to Rome in 

 the reign of Tiberius f , and reserved as a curiosity 

 for many years, which was one hundred and twenty 

 feet long, and two feet in diameter its whole 

 length. 



Indigenous, flourishing, and inured to all the 

 caprices of our climate as the oak is, yet it pro- 

 duces its fruit very precariously, and at times 

 sparingly, like a plant of exotic origin ; which 

 does not appear to have been the case formerly, 

 when such herds of swine were maintained by the 

 produce of our woods alone, and grants from ma- 

 norial lords for permission thus to feed them were 

 recorded with care as valuable obtainments. 



The cause of infertility in indigenous trees can 

 arise from no defect of construction in the organs 

 of fructification, but from some obstruction, per- 

 version, redundancy, or vitiation of the natural 

 powers ; which is particularly manifested by the 

 faculty which they possess at one period of pro- 



* Philosoph. Trans, as quoted in the Sylva. 

 f Pliny's Natural History. 



