A Difconrfeof Fore/l-Trees. ^p 



It is commonly and very probably aflcrted. That a Tree gains 

 a fievp one every year. In the body of a great Oak^ in the Nerv-Fo- 

 rei/jCut tranfverjly even (where many of the Trees are accounted 

 to be fome hundreds of years old) three and four hundred have 

 been diftinguifh'd* In a Fir-tree, which is faid to have juft fo 

 many rows of boughs about it as it is of years growth, there has 

 been obferved juft one lefs immediately above one row, then im- 

 mediately below : Hence fome probable account may be given of 

 the difference between the outer and the inner parts of the Rings, 

 that the outermoft being newly produced in the Summer, the ex- 

 terior fuperficies is condensed in the Winter. 



20. In the young branches and twigs of Trees there is a fith in 

 the middle, which in fome, as Jfi, and efpecially Elder, equals or 

 exceeds in dimenfions the reft of the fubftance, but waxes lefs as 

 they grow bigger,and in the great boughs and trunk fcarce is to be 

 found •• This gives way for the growth of the inward iS/«^/,which 

 at fiVft were lefs then the outer (as may be feen in any flwot of the 

 firft year) and after grow thicker, being it felf ahjHm'd, or per- 

 haps converted into Wood ^ as it is certain Cartilages or GriUles are 

 into bones (in the bodies of Animals') from which to fenfe they 

 differ even as much as pith from Wood. 



Thefe Rings or fpaces appearing upon tranfverfe SeUion (as they 

 appear elliptical upon oblique, and ftrait lines upon direft Se&ion) 

 are no other then the extremities of fo many Integuments invefting 

 the whole Tree, and (perhaps) all the boughs that are of the fame 

 age with any of them, or older. 



In the growth of Trees Augmentation in all dimenfions is acqui- 

 redjnot only by Accejfionoi a new Integument yearly, but alfo by 

 the Reception of nourifhment into the Vores, and fubftance of the 

 reft, upon which they alfo become thicker 5 not only thofe to- 

 wards the middle, but alfo the reft, in a thriving Tree ; Yet the 

 principal growth is between the B^ir^and Body, by Accejjion o£ a 

 new Integument yearly,as hath been mentioned .• Whence the cut- 

 ting of the Bark of any Tree or Bough round about will certainly 

 kill it. 



The Bark o£ a Tree is diftinguifhed into Rings or Integuments 

 no lefs then the Wood, though much fmaller or thinner, and there- 

 fore not diftinguifhable except in the thick barks of great old 

 Trees, and towiLrd the infide next the Wood j the outer parts dry- 

 ing and breaking with innumerable fijjures, growing wider and 

 deeper, as the body of the Tree grows bigger, and mouldering 

 away ou the out fide. 



Though it cannot appear by reafbn of the continual decay of 

 it upon the account aforefaid ^ yet it is probable the Bark^ of a 

 Tree hath had fucceflively as many Integuments as the vpood j and 

 that it doth grow by acquifition of a new one yearly on the infide, 

 as the wood doth on the out-fide, fo that the chief way, and 

 conveyance of nouriftiment to both the Wood and the Bark^, is be- 

 tween them both. 



The leaft Bud appearing on the body of a Tree doth as it 



O were 



