144 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
[Part II. 
makes each annual growth appear much larger 
than it really is, and elicits such expressions as 
“ How finely the tree was growing at last! ” or, 
“ How finely it was growing on this or that 
side! ” though, in reality, the growth may have 
been on the wane. 
Aided by turgescence, the lateral growth in 
girthing of the roots takes place with a force 
almost resistless. It will upheave enormous 
weights, and may frequently be seen to rupture 
roots crossing the spurs. But the force must be 
quite resistless to perform the office assigned by 
the supporters of the tap-root. Let us suppose 
a first-rate oak of 30 ft. in girthing, and 100 ft. in 
height. Let us give this tree, according to the 
vulgar error, a tap-root equivalent to its stem. 
This is the true Yirgilian creed in regard to 
the tap-root of the aesculus, and may have been 
the vulgar creed in that respect for thousands of 
years before Yirgil wrote: — 
“ JEsculus* imprimis, quae quantum vertice ad auras 
JEtherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit.” 
* Perhaps tap-rootists will tell us what tree the aesculus 
is. I have not the least idea. Modern authorities say that 
it is the beech; and, in reference to the eating of the beech 
mast, they derive the name from esca , as they do the name 
of fagus from <payw. But Ovid mentions the aesculus as 
distinct from the fagus {Met. lib. x. 91). And Virgil 
