OF FRUIT AND FOREST TREES. SS5 



complete illustration of its virtues, and to place the 

 advantages arising from it in a stronger light, T 

 shall beg leave to state a few of the very nu- 

 merous experiments that I have made on the forest 

 trees in His Majesty's Gardens at Kensington, 

 where the salutary effects of the Composition are 

 evident to every attentive observer. 



The first trials of its efficacy were made on some 

 very large and ancient Elms, many of which were 

 in a most decayed state, having all their upper 

 parts broken, by high winds, from their trunks, 

 which were withal so hollow and decayed, that a 

 small portion alone of the bark remained alive and 

 sound. Of these trees I cut away at first a part 

 only of the rotten stuff from the hollow of the tree, 

 and then applied the plaster to the place where the 

 operation had been performed, by way of an inter- 

 nal coat of the Composition. In a short time, 

 however, the efforts of nature, with a renovated 

 flow of the juices, were clearly discernible in their 

 formation of new wood, uniting with, and swelling, 

 as it were, from the old, till it became a strong sup- 

 port to that part of the tree where the Composi- 

 tion had been applied. I then cut away more of 

 the rotten wood from the inside, applying the plas- 

 ter in the same manner, with the same good effects, 

 and continued to use the knife in proportion to the 

 acquisition of new wood ; so that, from the tops of 

 these decayed and naked trunks, stems have ac- 

 tually grown of above thirty feet in height, in tlie 



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