46 



LETTERS ON TREES. 



like point of view. It is this : very often, instead of 

 passing down in straight Hnes, they wind about the 

 trunk, turning and twisting themselves, in their course 

 downwards, in an endless variety of ways. Particular 

 fibres or bundles, or sets of these, which, eight or ten 

 feet up the trunk, may be distinctly seen on one side 

 of it, perhaps forming part of a branch on this side, 

 may be traced gradually making their way round to 

 the opposite side, and in the end joining one of the 

 roots under-ground, which spreads itself in this other 

 direction. Even Avhere their course is, on the whole, 

 in a tolerably perpendicular direction, their meander- 

 ings are frequently singular enough — the fibres occa- 

 sionally reversing their course, and after a little space, 

 turning sharply round again, going out of their pro- 

 per direction (as if actuated by a sort of instinct) to 

 avoid obstacles, and then holding on their way. The 

 old Yew in Pear-tree Green Churchyard, and the 

 magnificent Chesnut in North Stoneham Park, afi'ord 

 excellent illustrations of these particulars. But an 

 inspection, in any timber-merchant's wood-yard, of the 

 pieces of hard-wood that have been stript of their 

 bark — and particularly of those parts of them where 

 the chief branches join the trunk — will illustrate them 

 sufficiently well. 



9. One other observation, and I will bring this let- 

 ter to a close. There may be said to be a certain 

 antagonism between the woody and the cellular tissue. 



