82 



of ground with a young tree, from a 

 sheltered to an exposed situation, the 

 plant would dwindle and decay. A tree 

 grown in an exposed situation contrives 

 by degrees to shelter itself; that is, it 

 grows to leeward of itself ; for the 

 windward growth diverts the current of 

 wind, and throws it up. And we see, 

 in exposed trees and woods, that they 

 get taller by degrees from the windward 

 to the leeward side. The chief injury 

 which trees suffer from wind is while 

 they are shooting. If the weather is 

 calm while they are shooting, they will 

 make a year's growth upward, and to 

 windward ; but their general growth will 

 be only upward, and to leeward; not 

 from being bent by the wind that way, 

 but from all other growth being destroyed 

 while the shoots are tender. Plenty of 

 examples of this sort of growth may be 

 seen in the neighbourhood of the sea. 

 This is from the mechanical force acquired 



