OF FOREST-TREES. 



197 



plain manner^ about the reason of those pretty undulations and chamfers, CHAp.xiI. 

 which we so frequently find in divers woods, which he takes to be the ^"^V^^ 

 descent, as well as ascent of moisture : For what else, says he, be- 

 comes of that water which we often encounter in the cavities, when many 

 branches divaricate, and spread themselves at the tops of great trees, 

 especially pollards, unless, according to its natural appetite, it sink into 

 the very body of the stem through the pores ! For example ; in the 

 Walnut, you shall find, when it is old, that the wood is admirably 

 figured, and, as it were, marbled ; and therefore much more esteemed 

 by the joiners, cabinet-makers, inlayers, &c. than the young, which 

 is paler of colour, and without any notable grain, as they call it : For 

 the rain distilling along the branches, when many of them break out 

 into clusters from the stem, sinks in, and is the cause of these marks, 

 since we find it exceedingly full of pores : Do but plane off a thin chip, 

 or sliver, from one of these old trees, and interposing it betwixt your 

 eye and the light, you shall observe it to be full of innumerable holes. 



This latter is to be continued no otherwise than by budding it on stocks of the Common 

 Sycamore ; for the seeds when sown, afford us only the Common Sycamore in return. 



In order to propagate the varieties by budding, let some plants of the Common 

 Sycamore, one year old, be taken out of the seminary, and set in the nursery in rows a 

 yard asunder, and the plants about a foot and a half distant from each other in the rows : 

 Let the ground be kept clean from weeds all summer, and be dug, or, as the gardeners 

 call it, turned in, in the winter ; and the summer following the stockg will be of a proper 

 size to receive the buds, which should be taken from the most beautifully-striped branches. 

 The best time for this work is August ; because, if it is done earlier, the buds will shoot 

 the same summer ; and when this happens, a hard winter will infallibly kill them. 

 Having, therefore, budded your stock the middle or latter end of August, with the eyes 

 or buds fronting the north, early in October take off the bass matting, which before this 

 time, will have confined the bark and pinched the bud, but not so as to hurt it much. 

 Then cut off the stock just above the bud, and dig the ground between the rows. The 

 summer following, keep the ground clean from weeds ; cut off all natural side-buds from 

 the stock as they come out ; and by autumn, if the land be good, your buds will have shot 

 forth, and formed themselves into trees four or five feet high. They may then be removed 

 into the places where they are designed to remain. 



The Striped Norway Maple should be budded on stocks of its own kind ; for on these 

 they take best. Variegated plants are recommended to be planted in poor, hungry, 

 gravelly, or sandy soils, to feed the disease which is supposed to occasion these beautiful 

 stripes : but these trees show their stripes in greater perfection in a good soil : The plant, 

 though in sickness, has the appearance of health ; the shoots are vigorous and strong ; the 

 leaves are large, less liable to be hurt by insects ; and the stripes appear more perfect, 

 natural, and delightful, than those on stunted trees growing on a poor soiL 



