472 
EXTRACTS—NATURAL HISTORY. 
straightness of the wood, and for its* being more tender than our Oak, which 
differences may partly be owing to the soil. There is no other Oak that appears 
to thrive in this country, or is likely to be worth cultivating for timber, except 
the White Oak (Quercus Alba) of North America. Of this there are not many 
large trees in England, but the young trees appear to grow well, particularly in 
peaty sand. The White Oak imported from America is heavier than British 
Oak ; it appears to be as strong, and is more difficult to work. There are a great 
variety of Oaks in America, but all except the white oak appear to be of an 
inferior quality. As ornamental trees, many of the American kinds are beauti¬ 
ful in their foliage, and from the various and rich tints the leaves take in the 
autumn, they are a great ornament to landscape scenery, and ought to be 
planted as ornamental trees more than they have been, in parks and pleasure 
grounds.—W. Atkinson, Esq.— Trans. Hart. Soc. 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
Distinction between Plants and Animals. — Plants and Animals are as 
like to each other as connecting links in the chain of creation can be; in fact, a 
vegetable is merely an animal wanting locomotion ;—it takes in nourishment by 
the absorbents in the root, after the manner of an animal, with but a slight diffe¬ 
rence; the food has first to be prepared for it, in being reduced to a proper con¬ 
sistency by the teeth and digestion, when the nourishment from it is taken up by 
the absorbents. As a parallel to this, it is necessary to place the plant in a situ¬ 
ation where it may find its food in proper consistency. Now if it should happen 
that the plant be placed where its food is too abundant, then it will be stimulated 
to grow to excess, or what in animals would be fat, and hence it will not be in a 
proper state to reproduce its kind. Precisely the same thing occurs with animals, 
at least we know it to be the case in man; and by parity of reasoning, we con¬ 
clude it would be the case with other animals. S. D.— Mag. Gard. and Bot. 
Age of Plants. —Some plants, such as the minute funguses termed mouldy 
only live a few hours, or at most a few days. Mosses, for the most part, live only 
one season, as do the garden plants called annuals, which die of old age, as soon 
as they ripen their seeds. Some again, as the fox glove and holly hock, live for 
two years, and are occasionally prolonged to three, if their flowering be prevented. 
Trees again, planted in a suitable soil and situation, live for centuries. Thus 
the Olive tree may live three hundred years, the Oak double that number; the 
Cbesnut is said to have lasted for nine hundred and fifty years, the Dragon’s 
Blood tree of Teneriffe may be two thousand years old, and Adamson mentions 
Banians six thousand years old. When the wood of the interior ceases to afford 
room, by the closeness of its texture, for the passage of the sap or pulp, or the 
formation of new vessels, it dies, and by all its moisture passing off into the 
younger wood, the fibres shrink, and are ultimately reduced to dust. The centre 
of the tree thus becomes dead, while the outer portion continues to live, and in 
this way, trees may exist many years before they perish.— Mag. Gard. Bot. 
