1 2 8 Vegetable Staticks. 
branches, I cemented it faft to the tube 
by means of the leaden Syphon /: But firft 
I cut away the bark, and laft year’s ringlet of 
wood, for 3 inches length to r. I then fil- 
led the tube with water, which was 12 feet 
long, and i inch diameter, having firft cut 
a gap 2Xy thro’ the bark, and laft year’s wood, 
1 2 inches from the lower end of the ftem : 
the water was very freely imbibed, viz. at 
the rate of 3 + t inches in a minute. In 
half and hour’s time I could plainly perceive 
the lower part of the gap j to be moifter 
than before ; when, at the fame time, the up- 
per part of the wound looked white and dry. 
Now in this cafe the water muft necefla- 
rily afcend from the tube, thro’ the inner- 
moftwood, becaufe the laft year’s wood was 
cut away, for 3 inches length all round the 
ftem 5 and confequently, if the fap in its na- 
tural courfe defcended by the laft year’s ring- 
let of wood, and between that and the bark 
( as many have thought ) the water Ihould 
have defcended by the laft year’s wood, or the 
bark, and fo have firft moiftened the upper 
part of the gap y 5 but on the contrary, the 
lower part was moiften’d, and not the upper 
part. 
Ire- 
