OF TREE S. 
the maple , the poplar , the elm , the fallow , the 
alder ^ the fitter d and hafel are among the firft; 
that put out leaves ; the plane tree alfo is very 
early,, Nat. Hift. lib. 1 6. 25. 
The foliation or leafing of the firft four 
named trees, 1, 2, 3, 4, varies very much as to 
the time, and the day on which they break 
bud j for as the winter goes off fooner or later* 
fo they are in leaf fooner or later. But this 
does not hold of the reft, e. g. in the year 1 750, 
in which there was fcarcely any winter- weather* 
but the whole was almoft a perpetual fpring, i 
obferved towards the latter end of March, that 
the currant and goGfeberry were in blow about 
Gripenberg ^ whereas the laft year they did not 
blow till the middle of April. The oak , and 
the afh feldom fliew their leaves before the night 
frofts are over v . For which reafon gardeners 
do not venture to truft their houfe plants to 
the open air, till the leaves of the laft trees give 
fign of a mild winter. 
v This agrees with lord Bacon’s obfervations, Nat. Kid. p. 
146. that a long winter makes the earlier and later flowers 
come together. This i obferved was the cafe in the year 
1755, when the fpring was very backward. The author 
fays in a note, that it has been obferved for above ten years 
paft, that the oak has been always in leaf before the end of 
May s in Upland. 
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