361 



by an extension of its branches on ihn deficient side, now turned to lee- 

 ward, without any loss of the powers of davelopment, in either its 

 branches, or its roots. 



I think it worth while to state the above, as being in a great measure 

 a remedy for that, for which no remedy seems as yet to have been dis- 

 covered, and which is an evil of considerable magnitude, to persons so 

 circumstanced. No one, of course, will suppose, that it is meant to 

 recommend the reversing or wheeling round of ill-balanced trees, in 

 ordinary circumstances ; because, where the exposure is not excessive, 

 and the two angles formed by trees with the ground, on the sheltered 

 and the windward sides, are not extremely different, judicious pruning 

 may certainly cure every deformity of top. But in any case, much will 

 depend on the judgment displayed in the execution. 



Note VIII. Page 136. 



*rhe notion that trees, whether young or old, suffer greatly on remo- 

 val, if not replanted in the same exposure, and also in the same position 

 according to the points of the compass, in which they previously stood, 

 appears to be a prejudice of great antiquity. Theophrastus, the only 

 writer in ancient times deserving the name of a phytologist, gravely 

 states the opinion, and gives his reasons for entertaining it, namely, the 

 power which habit exerts over all plants, and their inability to resist the 

 elements. In all this he is accurately copied by the Geoponic writers, 

 as may be seen by the quotation from Anatolius (Sect. II. Note VII. 

 anteh.), also by Cato, Columella, Palladius, and others. The mode 

 prescribed by the whole of them, is to mark the trees, before being 

 taken up, with white, or other colours, so that the sides, which faced 

 the north or south, &c., may be regularly turned again to the same 

 quarters. Pliny, though usually not slow in retailing the fables or the 

 prejudices of others, is the only ancient writer, who treats the doctrine 

 with indifference or contempt (See Hist. Nat. L. XVII. 2.). Virgil, 

 like those who went before him, describes the same process of marking 

 the south and north sides of trees, but he describes it like a poet ; 



Q.uin etiain cceU regioiiem in cortice sigiiant; 

 Ut quo quaeque inodo steteril, qua parte calores 

 Austrinos tulerit, qtise terga obveilerit axi, 

 Restituant: aded in leneris cuiisuescere multum est. 



Georg. L. II. 269 



It is not to be supposed, that, among the phytologists of the i7th 



46 



