OF FRUIT AND FOREST TREES. 229 



©pportunity his commission ofFers, of expressing likewise indi- 

 vidually the satisfaction I have received, as a countryman and 

 lover of Botany, from the perusal of your sagacious applica- 

 tion of the Chirurgicai art to vegetation ; and must own, that 

 your extirpation of the diseased parts, and the use of an un- 

 guent to ward off the noxious action of the air and humidity, 

 during the exertions of nature to repair loss of substance, 

 and the languid circulation of the vegetable juices, appear to 

 me highly judicious. The analogy in certain respects between 

 the inferior order of beings, so particularly your care, and the 

 more animated link of the great chain of Creation, seems to 

 become every day more and more apparent. Nay, if we are 

 to credit the ingenious author of the Philosophy of Natural 

 History, lately published in Edinburgh, it is not a little evi- 

 dent ; and incleed the great number of curious facts and ob- 

 servations which he has brought together render his phrase, 

 which I have used above, much less improper than it would 

 have otherwise appeared on the face of the case. All these 

 considerations then make me see, with the more pleasure, the 

 sagacious application of at least one branch of the healing art 

 to ascertain diseases of vegetables, to the advantage of the 

 world in general, and the British Navy in particular, which 

 must gain infinitely by the preservation and health of British 

 Oak, unrivalled for the noble purpose to which it is applied. 



I have still to congratulate you on your becoming, so 

 deservedly, a member of our Society ; for sure no treatise ever 

 laid before us promised a wider field of public and private eco- 

 nomy, and of course none ever came more immediately under 

 the spirit and purport of our institution. 



1 am, Sir, with hearty wishes for the success and extend^ 

 ed range of your pursuit. 



Your most obedient, humble Servant, 



(Signed J MATTHEW GUTHRIE, 



To Mr, Forsyth, Kensington. 



PS. As the extremes of our climate mav produce cases 

 which are not likely to happen in your temperate island. Count 

 Anhaltwill be happy to see more observations on such accidents 

 in any future letter vou may address to the Society. A paper 

 of mine on the Russian Climate, in the second volume of the 

 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of Edin- 

 burgh, may probably alford you all the information necessary 

 to judge of what modification your system may require in this 

 countrv, although I do think it applicable every where, with 



H h 



