30 



THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED 



PT. II. 



It is indeed possible, nay probable, that Almighty 

 wisdom has designed an additional supply of water to 

 the roots of the noblest of his vegetable works. But, 

 granting this to be so, we are not to look for the hand 

 of the Creator in an imaginary water-shed, from the 

 outside of the head of the tree, on to an imaginary 

 circle of spongioles, which, if they existed there, would 

 probably absorb no water ; but in the provision of an 

 apparatus for condensing the watery vapour of the air, 

 and for shedding it, through the whole head of the 

 tree, on to the woody and really absorbing part of the 

 root. 



That this water-shed takes place, Eoget may con- 

 vince himself oculis fidelihus. For rain and condensa- 

 tion only fall from leaves or boughs after they have 

 accumulated into much larger drops than those which 

 fall as rain. And where trees overhang roads, these 

 large drops, by the force of im])act, eject the fine sand, 

 and leave a surface of rough stones beneath the whole 

 circle of the head of the tree, not merely round the 

 outside of it. This fact may be seen. 



Where branches form elbows, pointing downward, 

 the dropping will sometimes almost amount to a stream, 

 and will form a conspicuous mark on the road. Where 

 boughs are horizontal, each drop falls perpendicularly, 

 as soon as gravity overcomes cohesion ; that is, as soon 

 as the force of its weight is greater than its power of 

 sticking to the bough. But not a drop of rain falls 

 under trees in its natural form and size. In many 



