GROWTH OF TREES. 24Q 



Bat that wood ever so old should get into that torpid state No torpidity- 

 described by some botanists, is certainly a very gross mistake : '" ^oo'^- 

 as sooii a^ the sap cease? to flow, the pipes decay, the rot is in- 

 troduced, and death ensues : for when all itiotion ceases in the 

 wood, it can no longer divest itself of those minute pans, which, 

 accumulafed, would soon cause its ruin. There are little fibres 

 which join together the bastard vessels, and are constantly re- 

 newed every fe* years, deceasing in len?,th as the compression 

 of the wood makes it necessary. Their motion, therefore, in 

 letting out the buds also divests them of their extraneous matter, Get rid of ex- 

 which would otherwise till up the places left for the new shoot [gj"^°"* ™**' 

 of aiburnum : but let the age be ever so advanced, the stems 

 will throw out new branches, the line of lift new buds. 

 I have a log of a tree adjoining the trunk, with above ninety 

 yearly circles— where there are two or three large buds pro- 

 truding, and the wood vessels making way, as in quite young 

 trees : but that there is some age at which the wood ceases to 

 form in width, there can be no doubt. I think I have traced 

 its manner of proceeding in this respect — but I have so seldom 

 an opportunity of gaining a tit specimen from a very old tree, 

 to ascertain the truth, and am so unfortunately circumstanced 

 for procuring any thing of the kind, (although ever so much 

 wanted.) that few would have the courage to study, so sur- 

 rounded with obstacles. In a specimen known to be between 

 two and three hundred years old, I have got a vegetable cutting : 

 for eighty years it proceeds in the common manner — then the 

 rows increase, not in the usual place, hut letween the others, 

 forming five between each low — this continues for near thirty 

 years j then it passes on to the old place between rhe bark and 

 the wood, and increases only on the south side of the tree shooting on 

 each autumn, without any sort of addition in the spring, or^'^^^o"^^ »"''* 

 north quarter. This goes on about sixteen or eighteen years, 

 when an entire stop to the growth seems to take place in width — 

 it may then be supposed, that the tree, having attained its perfect 

 size, stops for a certain number of years, and then begins to 

 decline, still throwing out buds and branches, and never too 

 old for this, since the oldest possible tree, if freed from rot, and 

 having the exterior pared, and a plaster put on, would form 

 new wood, and generate a quantity of buds. I have tried this 

 in such extremely old subjects, that 1 am convinced it is part of 



the 



