SECTION XIV. 



487 



species, a heap of compost, consisting of heavy loam, peat earth, and 

 about one sixth part of lime, happened to be made np. It was about 

 forty feet long, six broad, and three or four in thickness. Instead of lying 

 the usual time to rot — namely, a twelvemonth — it was neglected for 

 about six years before we thought of removing it. On attempting to 

 do so, the workmen were struck with the difficulty which they found 

 in penetrating the heap with their spades ; when it was discovered, that 

 the roots of these trees, having probably exhausted the pabulum within 

 their reach, darted greedily into the compost, and soon filled it with 

 their fibres, like the closest piece of net-work. They had likewise 

 so completely absorbed the moisture of the heap, that it nearly resembled 

 a mass of sand. It was noticed, moreover, that the trees, but especially 

 the two that were next the compost, had shown surprising vigour 

 within the two last years. 



It would probably be wrong, in the first mentioned case of the Lime, 

 to assert that the roots nearest the surface did not push upwards, like 

 those of the Ash, and penetrate into the superinduced stratum of earth. 

 From what we know of the properties of the Lime, and the facility of 

 propagating it by layers, it would be unreasonable to think so. The 

 striking circumstance, however, of a set of roots entirely new being 

 acquired, quite satisfied me that the extraordinary improvement made 

 upon the growth of this tree was occasioned mainly by that efibrt of 

 nature. 



Note XIII. Page 850. 



The wild Pine, or Scotch Fir, is placed by Linnseus in the class 

 MoncBcia monadelphia. Sir James E. Smith thus describes it — Pinus 

 silvestris, foliis geminis rigidis, strohilis junioribus peduncidatis recurvis, 

 antherarim crista exigud. — Flor. Britan. t. iii. p. 1031. But it is 

 singular, considering the great utility and importance of the tree, that 

 he passes it over in so slight a way. While we find in his work many 

 instances in which six or eight, or more varieties of some plants of little 

 use are elaborately described, yet not one variety of the Pinus silvestris 

 is given. Accordingly Mr Lambert, one of the vice-presidents of the 

 Linnaean Society, in the year 1803, with a laudable desire to supply 

 the omissions of foregoing writers, published a valuable treatise on the 

 genus Pinus, together with a collection of facts respecting the culture 

 and uses of three-and-thirty species, or at least varieties. But Mr Don 

 of Forfar has done more to discriminate the varieties most useful to the 

 planter, than any other given inquirer on the subject. 



