380 Miscellanies. 



with life quite to its end, and seemed to be as vigorous as the other. 

 The trunk and limbs of 5 extend twenty feet beyond the limb which 

 unites the two trees- 

 It is evident that it is the sap of ^, which is elaborated in B, and 

 is employed for its support. It is probable that the vessels in the part 

 of the limb which unites the trees and in which the sap originally as- 

 cended are now used for the passage of the sap from A to B. In 

 this case the vessels for the ascending sap perform their usual function 

 through most of the uniting limb, and their action is inverted in the 

 uniting part. 

 Rochester, N. Y., Mareh 29, 1837. 



6. Rotting of timber in certain situations. — Extract of a letter 

 to the editor, from Mr. D. Tomlinson of Schenectady, N. Y., da- 

 ted April 4, 1836. — In the year 1801, I built a ware-house on my 

 lot in Union Street in Schenectady. The cellar was dug about four 

 feet deep, and the stone wall a foot or two deeper. I left no open- 

 ing in the walls for door or window. The floor beams were of ex- 

 cellent pitch pine timber of twelve by twelve inches, slit, and were 

 six by twelve inches when placed in the wall, and about eighteen inch- 

 es above the ground. I laid a floor of three inch oak plank, loose, 

 neither jointed nor nailed, although they were square edge, and lay 

 close to each other. Five years thereafter, I observed a jostling in a 

 place in the floor, and raised one of the planks to learn the cause, and 

 found one of the six by twelve inch beams rotted off and fallen on 

 the bottom of the cellar. The plank was rotten below, except about 

 an inch sound on the upper side. I lifted the whole floor, found 

 most of the planks rotten, except a shell on the top ; and the timbers 

 were rotten, and so decayed, that I took them out and put in oak, 

 after making windows and a door in opposite sides of the wall. I 

 thought the depth of the cellar would have prevented injury to the 

 timber, but found it the cause of the destruction, as fine shavings and 

 slivers lying on the bottom of the cellar, were perfectly sound, while 

 the timbers, were beautifully ornamented with curtains of white mold, 

 hanging in festoons, nearly to the depth of the cellar, as white as 

 snow, very thick, and appeared like bleached muslin. 



In the year 1817, I took down an old kitchen on the same lot. 

 The floor had lain on saplings of about 6 by 8 inches, such as are 

 used for scaffold poles. They were bedded in the ground, so that 

 the pine floor came next the ground, and excluded air. They 



