EXPLANATION OF PLATE II. xix 



FIG. 1. Represents a board or plank from an ash tree 

 which grew on the estate of Balgrigey, in 

 Fifeshire, and which had been pruned many 

 years ago. The cuts, in this case, had been 

 made several inches from the bole ; and the 

 branches being very large, the stumps left 

 had become rotten. The enlargement of the 

 trunk, however, had not been stopped, for 

 the new wood had covered over all the haggled 

 parts, in some places to several inches thick : 

 Yet the fffects of the previous exposure to 

 the action of the weather, by injudicious 

 pruning, is strikingly marked by the decayed 

 state of the parts connected with the branches 

 which had been amputated. 



FIG. 2. Represents another board of ash wood from a 

 tree which grew at the same place. This 

 tree had been long neglected in the pruning : 

 but at last it had been pruned, when the 

 plant was nearly the size of the part of the 

 plank represented by the dark colour. The 

 branches had been cut off in a careless man- 

 ner, somewhat in the manner represented at 

 Fig. 2. in Plate I. After these had become 

 rotten, and had dropt off, or been broken off, 

 the new wood had by degrees covered the 

 blemished parts on the trunk ; but not until 

 they had been the means of introducing a 

 quantity of moisture sufficient completely to 

 destroy the interior of the tree. Both these 

 planks were cut up from trees felled in au- 

 tumn 1811, and were sketched from nature 

 by my ingenious friend Mr Skinner of Kirk-? 



