OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 299 
boughs^ and is tending to decay. Mr. Marsham computes, that at 
fourteen feet length this oak contains 1000 feet of timber. 
It has been the received opinion that trees grow in height only by 
their annual upper shoot. But my neighbour over the way, whose 
occupation confines him to one spot, assures me, that trees are expanded 
and raised in the lower parts also. The reason that he gives is this : 
the point of one of my firs began for the first time to peep over an 
opposite roof at the beginning of summer; but before the growing 
season was over, the whole shoot of the year, and three or four joints of 
the body beside, became visible to him as he sits on his form in his 
shop. According to this supposition, a tree may advance in height 
considerably, though the summer shoot should be destroyed every year. 
White. 
FLOWING OF SAP. 
If the bough of a vine is cut late in the spring, just before the shoots 
push out, it will bleed considerably ; but after the leaf is out, any part 
may be taken ofi" without the least inconvenience. So oaks may be 
barked while the leaf is budding ; but as soon as they are expanded, the 
bark will no longer part from the wood, because the sap that lubricates 
the bark and makes it part, is evaporated off through the leaves. 
White. 
EENOYATION" OF LEAVES. 
When oaks are quite stripped of their leaves by chaffers, they are 
clothed again soon after Midsummer with a beautiful foliage : but 
beeches, horse-chestnuts and maples, once defaced by those insects, never 
recover their beauty again for the "whole season. — White. 
ASH TREES. 
Many ash trees bear loads of keys every year, others never seem to 
bear any at all. The prolific ones are naked of leaves and unsightly ; 
those that are steril abound in foliage, and carry their verdure a long 
while, and are pleasing objects. — White. 
BEECH. 
Beeches love to grow in crowded situations, and will insinuate them- 
selves through the thickest covert, so as to surmount it all : are there- 
fore proper to mend thin places in tall hedges. — White. 
SYCAMORE. 
May 12. The sycamore or great maple is in bloom, and at this season 
makes a beautiful appearance, and affords much pabulum for bees, 
smelling strongly like honey. The foliage of this tree is very fine, 
and very ornamental to outlets. All the maples have saccharine juices. 
White. 
