BY DR. DERHAM. 



23 



the tree is just ready to put out leaves, and begins to 

 cease dropping, than at its first bleeding." 



A second observation is, " that the sap ascends, not 

 only between the bark and tree, but by all the pores 

 of the wood, (which they had demonstrated in the printed 

 account from another observation) and that this is unde- 

 niably proved, by boring in the same tree holes of several 

 depths, or the same hole double the depth. Por, from a 

 hole, suppose of two inches depth, will issue near double 

 the quantity of what proceeds from a hole of one inch 

 depth. So from the same hole, if it be bored on to 

 double the depth it had, will issue double the liquor that 

 at first did." 



Another experiment was, for a farther proof of the 

 sap's ascent through the woody part of the tree. " To put 

 it out of all doubt," saith Mr. Ray, " we took away, on 

 one side of a birch tree, bark and wood to a considerable 

 depth, and bored a hole into the tree, where the piece 

 was taken away; out of which hole it bled copiously, 

 notwithstanding we carefully prevented any other sap 

 coming on the filter, but what proceeded from the hole."* 



About this time, Mr. Ray (that he might make his 

 journeys as useful to the world as they had been enter- 

 taining to himself) began to draw up his observations 

 for the use of the pubhc. And one of the first things he 

 set upon was his ' Collection of Proverbs,' which he 

 digested into the most convenient method he could, for 

 the more easy and speedy finding them on occasion. 

 This book, although about this time fitted up for the 

 press, and sent to Cambridge to be there printed, in 

 1669, yet was not published till the year 1672, 



In this year (1669) Mr. Ray prepared also his ' Cata- 



* Another observation I meet with in this year, or rather the beginning 

 of 1669, is an Account from Mr. Jennings, the High Sheriff of Warwickshire 

 that year, viz. " That if among the charcoal wherewith they melt their iron- 

 mine there be any considerable quantity made of hoUy, it will make the iron 

 brittle, and have the same effect upon it that any sort of pyrites mixed with 

 pit-coal or sea-coal hath. But if the hoUy be barked before it be charred, or 

 made into coal, it will have no such effect." — G. S. 



