OF FOREST-TREES. 



233 



twelve or fourteen days, preponderate and outweigh the whole tree itself, CH. XVIII. 

 body and roots ; which if it be constant, and so happen likewise in other S*'"v"'^ 

 trees, is not only stupendous, but an experiment worthy the consideration 

 of ourprofoundest philosophers: An eoc sola aquafiunt arboresf Whether 

 water only be the principle of vegetables, and consequently of trees. I say, 

 I am credibly informed; and therefore the late unhappy angry man* might * Dr. Stubbs. 

 have spared his animadversion : For he that said but twenty gallons run, 

 does he know how many more might have been gotten, out of larger 

 apertures, at the insertion of every branch and foot in the principal roots 

 during the whole season ! But I conceive I have good authority for my 

 assertion, out of the author cited in the margin f, whose words are these : ■f Aditus 

 Si mense Maftio loerforaveris Betulam exstillaUt aqua liinpida, clara et cuitassympa- 

 piira, obscurum arhoris sapor em et odo?^em referens,quce,spacioocii aut ociv paihis cfu"as 

 dierim, pra;ponderahit arbori cum ramis et radicibus ^ His exceptions Acfas'ii'vestro 

 about the beginning of March are very insignificant, since I undertake SguensJ""' 

 not punctuality of time ; and his own pretended experience showed him, less, p. 5s. 

 that in hard weather it did not run till the expiration of the month, or 

 beginning of April, and another time on the tenth of February ; and 

 usually, he says, about the twenty-fourth day, &c. at such uncertainty : 

 AVhat immane difference then is there between the twenty-fourth of Fe- 

 bruary and the commencement of March ? Besides, these anomalous 

 bleedings, even of the same tree, happen early or later, according to the 

 temper of the air and weather. In the mean time, evident it is, that we 

 know of no tree which does more copiously attract, be it that so much 

 celebrated spirit of the world, as they call it, in form of water, (as some,) 

 or a certain specific liquor richly impregnated with this balsamical pro- 

 perty : That there is such a magnes in this simple tree, as does manifestly 

 draw to itself some occult and wonderful virtue, is notorious ; nor is it 

 conceivable, indeed, the difference between the efficacy of that liquor 

 which distils from the bole, or parts of the tree nearer to the root, (where 

 Sir Hugh would celebrate the incision,) and that which weeps out from 

 the more sublime branches, more impregnated with this astral virtue, as 



« Dr. Rush of Philadelphia, in his account of the Sugar-Maple, informs us, that in the 

 course of twenty-four hours, (April 14, 1798,) there flowed from a single tree of the Sugar- 

 Maple, that had been tapped for several successive years, near twenty-three gallons of sap ; 

 but he says, that such instances are rare, the usual quantity being about five gallons in pro- 

 mising weather, for several days together. 



Volume I. Go 



