20 
PRUNING FOREST TREES. 
tree. The concentric circles observable on the tranverse section of 
the stem of a tree, mark successive generations.” It is not my pre¬ 
sent intention to controvert opinions thus advanced, as I have already 
in vol. 1, page 394, alluded to the various hypotheses on the origin of 
buds and other annual developements, &c. I have no hesitation to 
assert that whatever be the period or origin of these annual processes, 
whether they be the actual production of each current year, or on 
the contrary, be co-existent with the branch on which they are 
protruded and deposited, remaining dormant until excited by the 
vital energy of the plants, certain it is, that if these buds or “ new 
organs” as they are styled by “an Arborist”, be removed by pruning 
“ the vessels and fibres forming the external layer, which add every 
year to the circumference of the stem,” must be diminished and cur¬ 
tailed just in proportion to the loss and abstraction of those vital or¬ 
gans which he justly considers to be the origin of the external annual 
layers. In other words, if these new annual layers, termed liber and 
alburnum originate solely in the descending currents from the buds 
and leaves, then it follows of necessity that, to remove those organs, 
all, or any part of them, must be to retard the advance of the 
tree to a corresponding extent; for the loss or injury inflicted on the 
generating organs, must inevitably lead to a deterioration, either in 
quality or quantity, of the matter which it is their natural office to 
deposit. 
That the buds and leaves are the actual agents in the production of 
new fibrous matter, will be shown by what remains to be adduced; 
and I cannot, I think, more effectually support my own argument, 
than by presenting to your readers, an extract from a paper which I 
had the pleasure recently to peruse in the transactions of the society 
of arts, vol. 48, page 213. The original communication was made 
by a Mr. I. Goss, and is thus noticed : 
“ It is well known to vegetable physiologists of the present day, 
that timber, on the trunk of a tree, is composed of concentric layers, 
or rather cylinders of wood, each cylinder being the produce of one 
year. It is likewise generally agreed, that the fibrous part of these 
cylinders is an aggregate of the fibres, (or roots as they may without 
much impropriety be called) which originate from the base of each 
leaf-bud, and descend to the ground, insinuating themselves between 
the inner bark, and the outer sap wood, covering the surface of thi s 
latter.” 
“It is evident, therefore, and was long ago observed by Duhamel, 
that any natuial circumstances which remarkably increase or dimin¬ 
ish the number of leaf buds in a tree, will occasion a correspondent 
