18 
TIIE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 
Cuttings imbibe 
by the surface. 
bility of the growth of seeds after an entombment 
of 3000 years. And supposing the presence of 
atmospheric air, and the absence of moisture, 
sufficient to cause generation, we know no reason 
why they should not grow. But we do know 
that if seeds are deprived of atmospheric air, by 
being hermetically sealed, even for a few months, 
they die. 
Again, the existence and growth of cuttings 
which have no root, old or young, prove absorp¬ 
tion from the surface. 
In the hot climate and on the arid hill-sides 
of Spain the olive is propagated by cuttings. 
These cuttings are old branches seven feet in 
length. One end of such a cutting is buried 
about eighteen inches in a pit, and concrete 
earth or clay is raised, like a pillar, round it, so 
that, at the upper end, only about eight or ten 
inches of the cutting is exposed to the atmo¬ 
sphere. Thus excretion of moisture is prevented, 
and secretion of moisture takes place, throughout 
about six feet of the cutting. In the course of 
two or three years the pillar of earth is gradually 
taken away; when a head has grown on a trunk 
five or six feet from the ground. 
From Pliny’s description of the planting the 
elm in vineyards, and Seneca the Younger’s 
