356 OBSERVATIONS ON 



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. 



SIZE AND GROWTH. 



MR. MARSHAM, of Stratton, near Norwich, informs me by 

 letter thus : ft 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 one hundred and sixteen and a half 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 'Philosophical Transactions.' 

 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, 24 July, 

 1790. 1 



The circumference of trees planted by myself, at one foot 



from the ground (1790). 



Feet. Inches. 



Oak in . . . 1730 . 4 5 



Ash . . .1730 . 4 6 



Great fir . . .1751 . 5 



Greatest beech . .1751 . 4 



Elm . . . 1750 . 5 3 



Lime . . . 1756 . 5 5 



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



1 It was at the hospitable seat of his " very worthy and ingenious 

 friend, Robert Marsham," that Stillingfleet prepared his " Calendar of 

 Flora for 1755," which has been already referred to. See p. 44. ED. 



