136 



check or detriment, while its equal balance and symmetry 

 are both singularly improved. On this subject I may speak 

 with some confidence, after long experience in the Removal 

 of Wood of all sorts, and in a situation decidedly exposed ; 

 because the exposure of nearly the one half of the Park 

 here is considerable, and the climate on the whole is none 

 of the most propitious. The practice, therefore, may be 

 deemed of some value to the planter, who will perceive, that 

 where so great a point is gained, no visible injury is suffered, 

 as is admitted by all, who have examined the trees at this 

 place. That almost every naturalist and georgical writer, 

 ancient and modern, from Theophrastus to Virgil, and from 

 Virgil down to Evelyn and his followers, has insisted on an 

 opposite practice, as quite indispensable to the health and well- 

 being of woody plants, is little to the purpose. It is nothing 

 more than a reiterated precept, handed down from one age 

 to another, in the face of the most unquestionable experience 

 of its fallacy* 



Upon the whole, in considering this fairest, and most beau- 

 tiful of vegetable productions, it is interesting to observe the 

 curious and complicated mechanism, if I may so speak, that 

 is displayed by nature, in nourishing and bringing it to per- 

 fection, and the intimate connexion which subsists between 

 the most distant parts. In fact, every part of a tree is the 

 condition of every other part, which continually acts and re- 

 acts. The judicious planter, therefore, will regard the treat- 

 ment to be given to none of these parts with indifference ; it 

 being clear, that the preservation of all the parts^ in as en- 

 tire and perfect a state as possible, is a matter of first-rate 

 moment to his art.t He will also sec, that his success mainly 

 depends on the due regulation of the ^a;^, an da careful y>ro- 

 teciion of the sap-vessels. 



In the course of the foregoing remarks and illustrations 



• Note VIII. t Note IX. 



