A Series of Facts, Hints, Observationa and Experiments on the Different Modes of Raising Young Plantations of Oaks, Etc; With Remarks Upon the Fencing, Draining, Pruning, and Training Young Trees, Etc. with Hints and Experimental Remarks Upon Fruit Trees (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1825. Excerpt: ... CHAP. VII. On the utility of leaves and branches. A great deal is said upon the goodness of soils for forest trees; but I am strongly of opinion that, after a plant is established and got root in the ground, less depends upon that circumstance than is generally imagined; or else why such fine timber in such opposite extremes, from the very best soils to the very worst, even upon barren rocks, and upon sands and soils of such different qualities? If trees derived their nutriment from the earth by the roots, is it not strange they should arrive at nearly the equal perfection we daily see in such different situations? I have seen the juniper, mountain ash, lilac, elder, and other plants, grow to a considerable size upon old walls of churches, and other buildings in ruins, a great height from the groulld, where the mortar was as hard as the stones, and where the roots could have no communication with the ground; whence do plants, in such situations, derive their nutriment? That some plants derive most of their nutriment from the gases in the atmosphere, is evident, (then of some why not others?) for instance, the houseleek, and other succulent plants and mosses, lichens, and some others, natives of Europe; but when we consider the vast quantities of plants so constituted, natives of the tropical climates, such as the Mesembryanthemums, Cactuses, Aloes, and many others of the like nature in those hot countries, where the rains are less frequent than in the temperate climates, the earth must of course be more dry and parched, and those plants perhaps could not grow if they did not derive their support from the gases in the atmosphere; and as heat and vapour are the causes of them, they may be more abundant in hot climates than in cold ones. From the little kno...