Vegetable Staticks. \ 3 5 



cut a gap at y through the bark, and laft year's 

 wood, twelve inches from the lower end of 

 the ftem : the water was very freely imbibed, 

 viz. at the rate of three -j- i- inches in a 

 minute. In half an hour's time I could 

 plainly perceive the lower part of the gap y 

 to be moifler than before ; when at the fame 

 time the upper part of the wound looked 

 white and dry. 



Now in this cafe the water muft nccef- 

 farily afcend from the tube, thro* the inner- 

 moft wood, becaufe the laft year's wood 

 was cut away, for 3 inches length, all round 

 the ftem; and confequently, if the fap in 

 its natural courfe defcended by the laft 

 year's ringlet of wood, and between that and 

 the bark, (as many have thought) the water 

 mould have defcended by the laft year's 

 wood, or the bark, and fo have firft moiftened 

 the upper part of the gap y - 3 but on the con- 

 trary, the lower part was moiftened, and not 

 the upper part. 



I repeated this experiment with a large 

 T)ukc- cherry -branchy but could not perceive 

 more moifture at the upper than the lower 

 part of the gap ; which ought to have been, 

 if the fap defcends by the laft year's wood, 

 or the bark. 



K 4 It 



