724 B A 
from thofc in the bark, the former being fufficient for the 
continuation of a tree, and the hitter i'erving only for its 
augmentation, 
Mr. JBrothertor,, however, has related fome experi¬ 
ments, which feein to decide the controversy by Shewing 
that the bark is not the vehicle of vegetation. He hacked 
a crab-tree all round with a hatchet, fo.as, betides cutting 
.off the bark, to cut pretty deep into the wood, for the 
breadt.h of about four inches ;■ yet the fame year it was 
.obfer.ved to increafe very conliderably in thicknels above 
the divided part, and to fhoot in length of wood about one 
fool. The next year it alfo grew confiderably, and (hot 
in length five inches ; but on the third year it died to the 
v.ery root. '1 he fame happened to another tree, part of 
whofe bark, was. eaten off by canker: the lower part flood 
without nurcafe, and by degrees the wood rotted: the 
.upper part increafed to the third year, and then died alio. 
The fame w titer found, that, in the branches of Scotch fir, 
the joints above the rings barked would grow much larger 
in three years than in five if the rings were not cut off. A 
ring of bark three inches broad being cut off' a Scotch fir, 
near the bottom of the item, below the uppermofl knot or 
joint, w as found to grow and fhoot out of its top half a yard, 
and all the parts above the ring to increafe in thicknefs 
the fame year, much more than they would have done, 
had not the lection been made ; but all tlie part of the 
ftem between the ring and the next knot below it did not 
grow- at all : the part below tire ring next under that, in¬ 
creafed in fome degree, though lefs than it would have 
done if the bark had not beegjcut off. The fecond year 
the increafe was alfo confide cable; but on the third year it 
died. Phil. Traiif. No. 187. 
M. Magnol. mentions an olive-tree, from which a cir¬ 
cular ring of hark, being cut away, the tree that year bore 
above tLie place of incifion double the quantity of flowers 
and fruit which it tiled to bear. Mr. Reneaum'e relates 
a fact nearly fimila.r to this. In the country about Aix 
and Marfeilles., when an olive-tree grows old, and al- 
xnofl ready for felling, they have a method of making i.t 
firft yield all the fruit w hicli it is capable of producing, by 
cutting a circular ring-of bark, an inch broad, from one 
of its young branches, and in its place putting an equal 
ring of bark taken from the branch of a young bearing 
olive-tree. The effect of this engraftment is, that the.; 
branches of the old tree bear plentifully the enfuing year, 
and thofeof the young one dieavvay. Hift. Acad. Sc. 1711. 
On the whole, Mr. Brotherton concludes, that moft of 
the lap, if not all, afeends in the veffels of the woody part, 
and not by the bark, nor between the bark and the wood. 
Mr. Lewenhoeck, on the other hand, has given feveral 
experiments and obfervations with the microfcope, to fhew 
that the bark of trees is produced from the wood, and not 
the wood from the bark. See Phil. Tranf. No. clxxxvii, 
and No.ccii. Be this as it may, it is very remarkable, 
that trees (tripped in the time of the fap, and buffered to 
■die, afford timber heavier, move uniformly denfe, ftron- 
ger, and fitter for fervice, than if the tree had been cut 
down in its healthy (fate. Something of a like nature has 
been obferved by Vitruvius and Evelyn. Mem. Acad. 
Scienc. 1738. 
In the tranfaclions of the London Society for the en¬ 
couragement of Arts, &c. for 1796, there is a recent dif- 
eovery made by Mr. Fairman, of Lynfled, Kent, for re- 
ftoring the bark of trees that have been peeled by flieep, 
or other animals, in the winter feafon. The method he 
deferibes as follows: “In the feverity of the fpring of 
1794, fome fatted (lieep were turned into a fine orchard of 
about twenty years growth, where, in a fli.ort time, they 
ftripped the bark from feveral of the trees entirely round 
the bodies, leaving the wood bare for at leaff fixteen inches. 
The firft ftep which 1 took to remedy this accident, was 
to cut oft’ the arms from feveral of the trees which were 
mofl injured ; and, from the largeft of thofe arms, I took 
off flips of rind of about tuo or three inches in width, and 
placed them perpendicularly round the naked body of the 
R K. 
tree, f'o as completely to fill up the deficient bark. But I 
firft cut away the uneven or damaged rind that was bitten, 
and then railed the edges of the bark up at top and bot¬ 
tom, and put the ends of the flips under, that the fap 
might circulate, and afterwards bound them round very 
tight with rope-yarn ; I then applied a compofition of loam 
and cow-dung, with a little drift land, over which I tied 
fome old lacking ; which was the whole of the procefs.” 
The event of this experiment was, that the flips adhered 
to the tree, united with eacli other, and became as full of 
fap as any other part; and the trees are now as flrong and 
vigorous as if they had received no injury, and are as 
healthy and luxuriant as any in the orchard. If, there¬ 
fore, the barking of trees fubjefits them to decay, this 
muff be conlidered as a very valuable discovery. 
Boerhaave mentions eight different fpecies of juices lodg¬ 
ed in the bark, -viz. the watery fap or chyle, an oil, balm, 
pitch, refin, colophony, gum, and giuvtmous refin. The 
bark hath alfo its peculiar difeafes; and is in foiled with 
infedls peculiar to it. Mofs is a difeafe of the bark. 
Wounds of tlie bark often prove mortal. See Canker. 
Of the bark of willows and linden, trees is ordinarily 
made a kind of ropes. The Siamefe make their cordage 
of the bark of tlie cocoa tree, which is alia the cafe iu 
moft of the Afiatic and African nations. In reality, ffax 
and hemp, with all their toughnefs, are only the fap-vef- 
fels, or ligneous fibres of the bark of thofe plants. 
There are a great many kinds of barks in ufe in the fe¬ 
veral arts : fome in medicine, as the Cinchona, or Je-. 
J.uits bark, viacer , cafcarilla, &c. others in dying, as the 
bark of the alder, and the quercitron or yellow oak-bark of 
America: others in fpicery, as Cinnamon, cajjia /ignea y 
Si c. Oak bark is ufed in tanning : others on other occa- 
iions, as cork ; that of a kind of birch is ufed by the In¬ 
dians for canoes capable of holding twenty-four perfons. 
The ancients wrote their books on barks, efpecially thole 
of the afii, and tilia or lime-tree ; not on the exterior or 
outer bark, but on the inner and finer, called pliilyra ; 
which are of fo durable a texture, that there are manu- 
feripts on it, ftill extant, a thoufand years old. 
In the Eaft Indies they manufacture the bark of a cer¬ 
tain tree into a kind of fluff' or cloth. It is fpun and deeded 
much after the manner of hemp. The long filaments fe- 
parated from it, upon beating and Keeping in water, com. 
pofe a thread, of a middle kind between (ilk and common 
thread; neither fo foft nor bright as (ilk, nor fo hard or 
flat as hemp. See Neumann’s Works, p.428. Some of 
thefe fluffs are pure bark, and are called pinajfes, biombon- 
nesy See. In others they mix filk with the bark, and call 
them ginghams and nillas : the fountalunges too are part 
filk, part bark, and are only diftinguilhed by being ftriped. 
In the ifland of Otaheite, the natives make their cloth, 
which is of three kinds, of the bark of three different trees; 
the paper mulberry, the bread-fruit tree, and the cocoa- 
tree. That made of the mulberry is the fineftand white!!, 
and.worn chiefty by the principal people. It is manufac¬ 
tured in the following manner. When the trees are of a 
proper fize, they are drawn up, and dripped of their 
branches; after which, the roots and tops are cutoff; 
the bark of thefe rods being then flit up longitudinally, is 
eafily drawn off; and, when a proper quantity has been 
procured, it is carried down to fome running water, in 
which it is depofited to foak; and, when it is fuppofed to 
be fufticiently foftened, the women go down to the brook, 
and, dripping ihemfelves, fit down in the water, to fepa- 
rate the inner bark from the green part on the outfide : to 
do this, they place the under fide upon a flat fmooth board, 
and with a fliell ferape it very carefully, dipping it conti¬ 
nually in the w-ater till nothing remains but the fine fibres 
of the inner'coat. Being thus prepared in the afternoon, 
they are fpread out upon plantain leaves in the evening : 
they arc placed in lengths of about eleven or twelve yards, 
one by the fide of another, till they are about a foot broadj 
and two or three layers are alfo laid one upon the other : 
care is taken that the cloth fliall be in all parts of an equal 
thicknefSj 
