LETTER III. 



29 



8. If, however, the Hke questions be asked, not in 

 respect of individual trees, but of individual tree- 

 plants (as these may well be called) — of the Oak, the 

 Elm, the Fir, viewed simply as plants, and inde- 

 pendently of their parasitic relations to others of 

 their particular species and community, very dif- 

 ferent answers must be returned. The answer to the 

 first question will be, that they live, one and all of 

 them, only a single year ; and that, as regards their 

 longevity, they stand on precisely the same footing 

 with confessedly annual plants. And in answer to the 

 second question, it may always suffice to observe, that 

 as they all attain their maturity within the year, so 

 the natural size of any of them may be accurately 

 determined by observation of the seedling plants of its 

 kind in the forester's nursery, or of the yearly shoots 

 issuing from the buds on any healthy tree of its kind ; 

 and, in general terms, that while subject to some 

 variety, it does not in any species exceed a few inches, 

 or at the utmost a very few feet, in length. 



9. There are still sundry particulars in this theory 

 that require to be more fully unfolded ; but it will be 

 convenient to take them up separately. — I am, &c. 



