108 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



n. ir. 



CHAPTER IV. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Barked In Julv, 1832, I obseivecl a horse-chestnut tree near 



horse- 



E^h^^^^ Esher, in the corner of a field adjoining Sandown turn- 

 pike-gate. It had been barked by cattle all round, I 

 should suppose twenty or twenty-five years before, 

 since the surface of the barked part was rotten, and 

 ipight be picked olT. Mr. King, steward to Mr. 

 Spicer, to whom the tree belongs, said that he had 

 recollected the tree in this state for eighteen years. 



The head of the tree was in full foliage, and at the 

 end of some branches, which had been cropped by 

 cattle the previous year, had shot six or seven inches. 

 The girth of the barked part of the stem was thirteen 

 inches and seven -eighths. The girth below the barked 

 part was twenty-two inches and a quarter, and above 

 the barked part, twenty-nine inches. The tree had 

 ceased to deposit new growth on the old scar, which I 

 attribute to the rottenness of the surface of the scar, 

 and to its having mouldered away from under the 

 living bark. I think it probable that, if a new surface 

 were veneered over the old scar, the stem would con- 



