298 OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 



OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 



TREES, ORDER OF LOSING THEIR LEAVES. 



ONE of the first trees that becomes naked is the walnut ; the 

 mulberry, the ash, especially if it bears many keys, and the horse- 

 chestnut come next. All lopped trees, while their heads are young, 

 carry their leaves a long while. Apple-trees and peaches remain green 

 very late, often till the end of November : young beeches never cast 

 their leaves till spring, till the new leaves sprout and push them off; in 

 the autumn the beechen-leaves turn of a deep chestnut colour. Tall 

 beeches cast their leaves about the end of October. WHITE. 



SIZE AND GROWTH. 



*~ Mr. Marsham * of Stratton, near Norwich, informs me by letter thus : 

 "I became a planter early; so that an oak which I planted in 1720 is 

 become now, at one foot from the earth, twelve feet six inches in 

 circumference, and at fourteen feet (the half of the timber length) is 

 eight feet two inches. So if the bark was to be measured as timber, 

 the tree gives 1164 feet > buyer's measure. Perhaps you never heard of 

 a larger oak while the planter was living. I flatter myself that I 

 increased the growth by washing the stem, and digging a circle as far 

 as I supposed the roots to extend, and by spreading sawdust, &c., as 

 related in the Phil. Trans. I wish I had begun with beeches (my 

 favourite trees as well as yours), I might then have seen very large 

 trees of my own raising. But I did not begin with beech till 1741, and 

 then by seed ; so that my largest is now at five feet from the ground, 

 six feet three inches in girth, and with its head spreads a circle of 

 twenty yards diameter. This tree was also dug round, washed, &c." 

 Stratton, 2th July, 1790. 



The circumference of trees planted by myself at one foot from the 

 ground (1790). 



Oak in 1730 



Ash 1730 



Great fir 1751 



Greatest beech 1751 



Elm 1750 



Lime 1756 



4ft. 5 in. 



4 64 



5 



4 



5 3 

 5 5 



The great oak in the Holt, which is deemed by Mr. Marsham to be 

 the biggest in this island, at seven feet from the ground, measures in 

 circumference thirty -four feet. It has in old times lost several of its 



* Robert Marsham, of Stratten Lawless, a country gentleman, contributed 

 several papers to the ' ' Philosophical Transactions," chiefly observations upon trees 

 and vegetation. He was also the acquaintance of Stillingfleet. 



