OF FOREST-THEES. 231 



wood, (see Book iii. chap. iv. of Fuel,) as of the tops and loppings, Mr. CH. XVlir, 

 Howard's new Tan. The inner white cuticle, and silken bark, (which 

 strips off of itself almost yearly,) was anciently used for writing-tables, 

 before the invention of paper ; there is a Birch-tree in Canada, whose 

 bark will serve to write on, and may be made into books, and of the twigs 

 very pretty baskets ; with the outward thicker and coarser part of the 

 common Birch, are divers houses in Russia, Poland, and those poor 

 northern tracts, covered, instead of slates and tile : nay, one who has 

 lately published an account of Sweden, says, that the poor people grind 

 the very bark of Birch-trees to mingle with their bread-corn. It is af- 

 firmed by Cardan, that some Birch-roots are so very extravagantly veined, 

 as to represent the shapes and images of beasts, birds, trees, and many 

 other pretty resemblances. Lastly, of the whitest part of the old wood, 

 found commonly in doating Birches, are made the grounds of our effemi- 

 nate farined Gallants' sweet powder ; and of the quite consumed and 

 rotten, (such as we find reduced to a kind of reddish earth in super- 

 assist him in sowing his winter grain, and teach him how to guess at the approach of winter. 

 Towards the end of September, which is the best season for sowing wheat, he will find 



The leaves of the Plane-tree, tawny ; 



• > of the Oak, yellowish green 



• of the Hasel, yellow ; 



= of the Sycamore, dirty brown ; 



. of the Maple, pale yellow ; 



. of the Ash, fine lemon ; 



The leaves of the Elm, orange ; 



of the Hawthorn, tawny 



yellow ; 



of the Cherry, red ; 



«— of the Hornbeam, bright 



yellow. 



There is a certain kind of genial warmth which the earth should enjoy at the time the 

 seed is sown. In the animal world we observe this in the most convincing manner. In 

 brutes the symptoms of that period are plainly marked. The budding, leafing, and 

 flowering of plants seem to indicate the same happy temperature of the earth 

 " Vera tument terrae, et genitalia semina poscunt." 



Appearances of this sublime nature may be compared to the writing upon the wall, 

 which was seen by many, but understood by few. They seem to constitute a kind of har* 

 snonious intercourse between God and man. They are the silent language of the Deity, 



The ingenious and indefatigable Mr. Young has endeavoured to ascertain t^e time of 

 sowing by another method. His experiments are accurately conducted, and his conclu- 

 sions from them fairly drawn | but it were to be wished that he had intevwoven the idea of 

 Linnasus with his own experiments ; we should then have had an unerring rule to go by. 

 The temperature of the season, with respect to heat and cold, drought and wet, differs in 

 every year. Experiments made this year cannot determine, with certainty, for the next, 

 They may assist, but cannot be conclusive. The bints of Linnaeus constitute an universal 

 rule for the whole world, because trees, shrubs, and herbs, bud, leaf, flower, and shed their 

 leaves, in every country, according to the difference of seasons. 



