Vegetable Staticks. i 3 j 
a gap at/ through the bark, and laft year's 
wood, iz inches from the lower end of 
the ftem : the water was very freely imbib- 
ed, viz. at the rate of 3 4' i inches in a 
minute. In half an hour's time I could 
plainly perceive the lower part of the gap / 
to be moifter than before 5 when at the 
fame time the upper part of the wound 
looked white and dry. 
Now in this cafe the water muft need- 
fariiy afeend from the tube, thro* the inner- 
moft wood, becaufe the laft years wood 
was cut away, for 3 inches length, all round 
the ftem j and confequently, if the fap in 
its natural courfe defeended by the laft: 
year's ringlet of wood, and between that 
and the bark (as many have thought) the 
water ihould have defeended by the laft 
year's wood, or the bark, and fo have firft 
moiftened the upper part of the gap/, but 
on the contrary, the lower part was moif- 
tened, and not the upper part. 
I repeated this Experiment with a large 
'Duke-Cherry branch, but could not perceive 
more moifture at the upper than the lower 
part of the gap, which ought to have been,, 
if the fap defeends by the laft years wood 
or the bark. 
K 4 
I 
