314 LETTERS FOUND IN A BEECH. 



out. The following we select from the Philosophical Transactions, 

 as sufficient examples of this curious fact. 



1. Letters found in the Middle of a Beech. 

 By J. Theodorie Klein, Secretary of Dantzick, F.R.S. 



In the year 1727, a beech-tree was felled near Elbing, for the 

 domestic use of John Maurice Moeller, then post- master of Elbing, 

 now secretary of his native city. The trunk being sawed into 

 pieces, one of these, three Dantzic feet six inches long, cleft in the 

 house, discovered several letters in the wood, about one inch and a 

 half from the bark, and near the same distance from the centre of 

 the trunk. Two of these db, show their old bark smooth and 

 sound. The wood lying between the letters and the bark of the 

 trunk, as well as that between the letters and the heart of the tree, 

 is likewise solid and sound, bearing not the least trace of letters. 

 The characters aa, being somewhat hollow, receive the mark of the 

 letters db. 



The same letters are seen in the bark of the tree, only that they 

 are partly ill shaped, partly almost effaced ; whereas those within 

 bear a due proportion, as if done with a pencil. 



It is an ancient custom to cut names, and various characters, on 

 the rinds of trees, especially on such as are smooth. That this has 

 happened to our beech, the mere inspection of the bark sufficiently 

 shows. An incision made, the tubuli conveying the nutritious juice, 

 and the utriculi in which it is prepared, are divided and lacerated, 

 and more of them, as the incision was made deeper and wider : and 

 consequently the sap is not carried on in the circulation, but extra- 

 vasated and stopped at the wounds. Hence the origin of the cha- 

 racters in the bark and wood. 



Now as a new circle of fibres grows yearly on the tree, between 

 the wood and bark, a number of these may, in a process of years, 

 more and more surround the engraved characters, and at length 

 cover them. And this number was the greater in our beech, on 

 account of better than half a century elapsed since the incision, 

 which was made in the year 16/2, as appears on the outside of the 

 bark. But while new circles of fibres are successively added, the 

 tunicle or skin of the bark is broken each time, and the utriculi ex- 

 tended and dilated. 



