84 



■ A DISCOURSE, &c. 



means they wound the roots, (which gangrenes, and sometimes kills tlie 

 tree,) and if the holes be not filled, the air and moisture occasion mouldi- 

 ness : so that when all is summed together, there is nothing comparable 

 to frequent stin'ing the ground, opening the dry clod, and watering upon 

 tiiat ; and if you lay about them any fern-brakes, or other trash, capped 

 with a little earth to entertain the moisture and skreen it from the heat, 

 let it not be wadded so close, or suffered to lie so long as to contract any 

 mustiness, but rather loose and easy, for the free intercourse of the air, 

 and to break the more intense ardours of the sun-beams. 



Thus I have exercised your lordships' and these noble gentlemen's 

 patience with a dull Discourse of Earth, Mould, and Soil ; but I trust 

 not altogether without some fruit, as the subject has relation to what has 

 so lately been produced, and with happy event made out by those learned 

 persons who have entertained this illustrious Society with the Anatomy 

 of Plants. 



