SPANISH CHESTNUT. 



45 



growth and another. The uncommon dryness of 

 the matured wood, and moistness of the sap-wood of 

 this tree, and smallness of the number of sap-wood 

 rings, commonly only from 2 ta 6 in this country, 

 incline us to believe that this is the cause of the in- 

 sufficiency or defect ; and that, in a milder, drier cli- 

 mate, the sap-wood rings will be found to be more 

 numerous, and thus, independent of a better first 

 ripening, affording a longer time for their cells to be 

 more filled up mth an unctuous matter (which pre- 

 vents the shrinking) gradually deposited while they 

 convey the sap, the sap-wood rings being the part of 

 the timber through which the sap circulates. As 

 proof of this unctuous deposit or filling up, we ob- 

 serve that dry sap-w^ood imbibes moisture much 

 quicker, and in greater quantity, than dry mature. 

 We think this premature maturity (if we may so 

 term it) of timber in cold countries, a general law» 

 Our larch, originally from the Apennine, has not 

 more than one-third of the number of sap-rings of 

 I our Scots fir, indigenous in Mar and Rannoch 

 mountains ; and om* narrow-leafed, or English elm, 

 said to have been introduced from the Holy Land 

 in time of the Crusades, has not more than one-half 

 of the number of our indigenous broad-leafed, or 

 Scots elm. From the sap-growths of Labumumj 



