WOOD. 



of many of the anecdotes, to give it an entire perufal before 

 he lays it down. Anthony Wood was credulous, and per- 

 haps too much an enthufiaft in mufic to fpeak of its effefts 

 with critical and philofophical precifion ; however, without 

 his afliftance, the ftate of the art at Oxford, and the acade- 

 mical honours bellowed on its profeflbrs, as well as memo- 

 rials of their lives and works, would have been difficult to 

 find. Upon his decifions in matters of tafte, we are not 

 always perhaps implicitly to rely. The high charafter he 

 has given Dr. Wilfon's produftions and abilities may have 

 proceeded from want of experience, knowledge, and pene- 

 tration into the finer parts of the art ; and as to Dr. Rogers, 

 his judgment of him feems to have been manifeftly warped 

 by friendfhip. Yet, upon the whole, it mud be allowed 

 that it is only from fuch minute records as thofe of Anthony 

 Wood that any true and fatisfaftory knowledge can be ac- 

 quired of the charafters, manners, and domeftic occurrences 

 of our anceftors. The great features of hiftory, and the 

 events which occafion the ruin or profperity of a ilate, muft 

 be nearly the fame in every age and country ; but comforts, 

 conveniences, and the diftreffes of private life, furnilh the 

 mind with refleftions far more varied and interefting to the 

 generality of mankind, than the rife of ftates or downfall of 

 kings and heroes. 



Wood, , a performer on the violin, who led the band 



many years at the theatre in Covent Garden, and father of 



Wood, his fucceflbr in that orcheftra, organift of 



St. Giles's, and of Chelfea college. They were both aftive 

 profeffors ; but though performers only of the fecond clafc, 

 they conftantly ranked themfelves of the firft. Burney. 



Wood, in Vegetable Anatomy, is that more or lefs hard 

 and compaft fubftance, which makes up the bulk of the 

 trunk and branches of a tree or fhrub, and is concealed 

 from view by the bark. When cut tranfverfely, the wood 

 1 is found to confift of numerous concentric layers, very diftindl 

 1 in the fir, and the trees of cold or temperate countries in 

 • general ; lefs fo in thofe appropriated to a tropical climate. 

 The external part of each circular layer being much the 

 moft hard and compaft, often with fomewhat of a horny ap- 

 pearance, dillinguifhes the limits of each. Scarcely any two 

 1 layers of the fame tree are precifely alike, in the proportion 

 j which this compaft part bears to the reft ; nor does any 

 lOne layer exhibit a precife uniformity of diameter in its 

 [whole circle. On the contrary, each layer is broader on 

 i that fide of a tree where the expofure has been moft favour- 

 able to its growth, where, confequently, there have been 

 , more branches and leaves, fo as to yield a greater depofit 

 I of woody matter. Hence the layers being all, for the moft 

 part, broadeft on one fide of a tree, their aggregate difpro- 

 , portion throws the common centre, or pith, very much out 

 of the aftual centre of the trunk. It having been remarked 

 :in felling trees, that the greateft breadth of the concentric 

 icircles is very often on their fouth fide, a rule has been pro- 

 ipofed for travellers to afcertain thereby the direftion of the 

 Icompafs. But travellers muft be ftrangely at a lofs, if they 

 icould find no eafier method of judging. Nor is the mode 

 in queftion infallible. It would indeed (hew on which fide 

 'the growth of each particular tree had been moft favourable, 

 'whether from its expofure, or the nature of the foil which 

 iits roots had met with ; but this may not always be towards 

 jthe fouth. We muft ftay to fell great part of a foreft, to 

 iForm a precife opinion ; and the procefs would be, as it 

 I were, 



1 •' to tell what hour o' the dny, 



i The clock did ftrike — by algebra." 



I The number of thefe concentric layers, in any tree, 



I Vol, XXXVIII. 



if it be found to the heart, VC17 correftly demonftrates the 

 number of years the trunk has been growing. This is a ge- 

 neral opinion, and undoubtedly con eft, provided the layers 

 are well marked. The obferver nmft be aware that each 

 annual layer is compofed of a great number of thinner .and 

 fcarcely diftinguiftiable ones, which occafionally afTurae a 

 more confpicuous appearance than ufual, in confequence of 

 fluftuating feafons, or any accidental checks in the growth 

 of a tree, as hard winters render the outfide, or horny part, 

 of each circle, more decided ; while favourable fummers 

 make the circle itfelf altogether broader. But there is 

 always a fufRcient diftinftion between fummer and winter, 

 beyond the tropics, to eftablifti the above rule. Ever-greens, 

 for the moft part, and trees of hot countries, exhibit {lighter 

 traces of thefe concentric layers ; but they may be dif- 

 cerned in every mahogany table. Monocotyledonous plants 

 have been faid to be entirely without any fuch annular ftruc- 

 ture. But there is no reafon why they (hould neceflarily be 

 fo. Mr. Saliftjury once demonftrated this ftrufture to us in 

 a Dractena ; and its abfence in palms and ferns is to be at- 

 tributed to a pecuhar mode of 'depofiting wood in thefe 

 plants, rather than to their being monocotyledonous. 

 What has been faid already under the articles Circula- 

 tion of Sap, and CoRTEX, will fufficiently explain this. 

 As the inner furface of the bark depofits the matter of 

 the wood, it muft lie in concentric circles ; and in pro- 

 portion as this operation goes on more conftantly and 

 uniformly, thefe layers muft be the more homoge- 

 neous and uninterrupted. Perennial roots of herbaceous 

 plants often exhibit concentric circles, of annular form- 

 ation, even in hot climates, as may be feen in Jalap. 

 Each circle, no doubt, marks the increafe which has 

 taken place in each fuccefTive feafon ; and while the herb 

 is not growing, nothing is added to the root. 



The theory of vegetation, as explained in the articles 

 juft cited, ftiews the reafon of the fpiral-coated velTels 

 being found in the young wood only, and not in the 

 bark. Thofe veffels, formerly fuppofed to contain air 

 alone, are the real arteries of the plant, and convey its 

 fap, or blood, through the wood, to be returned through 

 the bark, where it depofits particular fecretions. This 

 theory alfo explains why the alburnum, as being the layer 

 of unhardened wood for the prefent year, is tender, and 

 even a mere jelly, at one period. But the bark is 

 in the fpring of the year, before the depofit of wood 

 begins, moft readily ftripped from the tree ; though it 

 alfo readily, and without harm to the tree, comes off in 

 winter, while vegetation is at a ftand. 



We fcarcely need here detail the experiments of Du 

 Hamel, to determine whether the wood forms the bark, 

 or the reverfe. Thin metallic plates introduced between 

 thefe two parts, and carefully bound up, ftiewed, after a 

 few feafons, when the branch thus treated was cut acrofs, 

 that the bark had depofited layers of wood on the out- 

 fide of thefe foreign fubftances, with little or no preju- 

 dice to the growth of the plant. But Dr. Hope's ex- 

 periment (fee Cortex) is ftill more ftrikingly decifive. 

 The Linnaean hypothefis, that the pith added a layer 

 every year to the wood internally, is thus entirely fet 

 afide. Indeed nothing but a preconceived theory, of the 

 great importance of the pith, and its analogy to the me- 

 dullary or nervous fyftem of animals, (for the fupport of 

 which opinion arguments are not wanting,) could have 

 led to fo erroneous a conclufion. It is fufficient to remark, 

 what indeed could not efcape the intelligent author of this 

 hypothefis, that trees grow vigoroufly, though their heart 

 4F is 



