OF FOREST-TREES. 



157 



even the removal of Ivy itself, if very old, and when it has long invested cHAP. 

 its support, is attended with pernicious consequences, the tree frequently 

 dying from the sudden exposure to unaccustomed cold. Of the roots 

 of Ivy (which shrub may, with small industry, be made a beautiful 

 standard) are made curiously polished and flecked cups and boxes, and 

 even tables of great value. Mistletoe, and other excrescences, are to be 

 cut and broken off. But the fungi (whi6h prognosticate an internal 

 fault) are remedied by abrasion, interlucation, and exposure to the sun. 



The bodies of trees are visited with canker, hollowness, hornets, ear- 

 wigs, snails, &c. 



The wind-shock is a bruise and shiver throughout the tree, though 

 not constantly visible, yet leading the warp from smooth renting, caused 

 by over-powerful winds, when young, and perhaps by subtle lightnings, 

 to which the strongest Oaks, and other the most robust trees, are fain to 

 submit, and will be twisted like a rope of hemp ; and therefore, of old, 

 not used to kindle the sacrifice. Trees likewise often suffer the same 

 injury by rigorous and piercing colds and frosts ; such as in the year 



" Ivy." But when old, it puts forth egg-shaped leaves without lobes. This is the Hedera 

 Poetica of C. B. "Poets' Ivy." Daily experience abundantly shews that all plants undergo 

 a variety of changes. From the seed spring up tender shoots, which at first resemble 

 small shrubs ; these, by degrees, acquire a firm trunk, and bear flowers and fruit ; after this 

 the branches flag, and are covered, as well as the trunk, with moss, first one branch de- 

 caying, and then another, till the whole tree moulders away, and the place thereof knowelh it 

 no more. Linn. 



5. DISEASES. When life, in any manner of way, is hurt or injured, that state we call 

 disease ; to which vegetables, as well as animals, are subject. By too great heat they ai-e 

 parched, become languid, and droop ; by too much cold they are often killed, or made 

 subject to cold tumours, analogous to kibes and chilblains in the human body. Sometimes 

 they are liable to cankei-, sometimes to vermin ; from whence they are said to be lousy. 

 Linn. , 



6. DEATH. Death is the privation of life. Every living thing is subject to death, as 

 constant experience teaches. Since, then, we know that vegetables as well as animals die 

 by diseases and external injuries, we may ask. How can vegetables exchange life for death, 

 if they were not previously endowed with life? For if we break a stone, which has no life, 

 into a thousand parts, it by no means undergoes such a change as we observe in vege- 

 tables. Linn. 



Volume II. X. - 



