192 



NOTICES OF AUTHORS. 



IV. — Forsyth on Fruit and Forest Trees. 



The surgery of trees , which this author has the 

 great merit of almost perfecting, is the only import- 

 ant matter in this volume. His composition salve, 

 on the merits of which he expatiates so much, and 

 for the discovery of which he received a premium 

 from the collective wisdom of the nation assembled 

 in Parliament, is, however, a piece of mere quackery; 

 and all the virtue of his practice lies in the cutting 

 out of the dead and diseased parts of the tree, thus 

 effecting for vegetables by excision, what nature her- 

 self performs for animals by suppuration, exfolia- 

 tion, and absorption. 



Mr Forsyth's surgery is of slight importance to 

 timber trees in respect of economy, as with them as 

 with man, it is generally easier to raise up anew than 

 cure the diseased. Yet it is well that the rationale 

 of this practice be understood by foresters, more in 

 regard to prevention than cure ; an occasion will how- 

 ever sometimes occur where a tree may economically 

 be benefited by surgical aid : and in cases where the 



