320 THE SUCCESSIVE 



use. Even the man who accumulates for poste-^ 

 rity, in reality seldom does so in his own feeling 

 of the matter; for he who leaves the most to 

 others when he quits the world, did not collect 

 it for them, but for himself for the gratification 

 of his desire of possession. The man who plants 

 wishes to have something to look at, and to have 

 it as speedily as possible, and that, with the other 

 circumstances that have been noticed, conspires 

 to cover the rich districts of the country with 

 growing rubbish, which, when it comes to be cut 

 down, is fit only for fire-wood, and very inferior 

 for that. To obtain good timber by cultivation 

 appears then to be very difficult, if not altogether 

 impossible; but still it is highly necessary that 

 the causes should be known. But let us return 

 to the merely descriptive part of the subject: " the 

 hundred oaks in a hundred years." 



Well, the plant of the first year continues to 

 send down a root, and push out rootlets, and to 

 elevate a stem, put out leaves and show the germ 

 of a bud or buds, until it has attained a certain 

 size, and then it pauses for the year. During the 

 whole time of its growth, the whole consistence is 

 soft and juicy ; and though there are vessels in it 

 they are not very easily seen by the naked eye. 

 But when the enlargement of bulk ceases, a new 

 action takes place, the whole gradually becomes 

 more firm, and if it is cut across, the pulpy sub- 

 stance will be found separated into a central piece 

 and a ring, with an intervening ray of pellicle, as 

 well as another on the outside. 



The centre piece is the pith, which, as the sea- 

 son advances, renders up its moisture to the other 

 parts, becomes spongy and shrinks in bulk, as if 



