104 



species, aliliougli iii diUcrent situations, but that nature, 

 wliich orders nothing in vain, has bestowed these properties 

 for wise purposes, and that they are the best calculated, 

 respectively, to realize in those trees as great a complement 

 of life, as their respective circumstances will admit ? 



This conclusion naturally leads us to a closer attention to 

 the progress of wood, than is usually bestowed upon it. In 

 infancy, that is, in the sccd-bed or nursery -ground, we find, 

 that all plants of the same sort are alike, or nearly so. But 

 in a year, and, still more, in many years, when they go out 

 to form plantations, they experience a great diversity of treat- 

 ment, and arc placed in soil of various qualities, and in 

 various degrees of exposure. To these vicissitudes the plastic 

 powers of plants in process of time accommodate themselves; 

 so that in point of form, character, and properties of every 

 sort, they must essentially vary from one another, and ac- 

 quire the properties most suitable to such soils and situations. 

 It is for this reason, that to establish any just analogy between 

 the transplanting of young trees, and the transplanting of 

 old, is utterly impossible, whatever may be believed by most 

 planters to the contrary ; because the circumstances in both 

 cases being changed, the subjects under their influence change 

 in consequence.* 



In considering the characteristics of trees above mentioned, 

 we should always bear in mind, that every production of 

 nature is an end to itself, and that every part of it is, at once, 

 end and mean. Of trees in open exposures we find, that 

 their peculiar properties contribute, in a remarkable manner, 

 to their health and prosperity. In the first place, (heir short- 

 ness and greater girth of stem, in contradistinction to others 

 in the interior of woods, are obviously intended to give to 

 the former greater strength to resist the winds, and a shorter 

 lever to act upon the roots. Secondly, their larger heads, 



* Note VII. 



