five feet from the ground, measures thirty-three feet, eight inches in girth; however, neither this, nor any of the oaks mentioned by Mr Evelyn, bear any proportion to one growing at Cowthorpe, near Wetherby, upon an estate belonging to the Right Hon. Lady Stourton. The annexed plate is taken from a drawing made upon the spot in the year 1776. The dimensions are almost incredible. Within three feet of the surface it measures sixteen yards in circumference, and close by the ground, twenty-six yards. Its height is about eighty feet, and its principal limb extends sixteen yards from the bole. Throughout the whole tree, the foliage is extremely thin, so that the anatomy of the ancient branches may be distinctly seen in the height of summer."*

If we may descend from the lordly oak to so humble a plant as a radish, the reader may perhaps be amused by the following notice of an enormous specimen of this vegetable, also mentioned by Evelyn, in his "Terra. A Philosophical Discourse of Earth, relating to the Culture and Improvement of it for Vegetation, and the Propagation of Plants, as it was presented to the Royal Society."-"Peter Hondius tells us (in his book entitled Dapes inemptæ) that by the sole application of sheep's dung he produced a radish root in his garden as big as half a man's middle, which being hung up for some time in a butcher's shop, people took for an hog." The date of this paper is Ap. 29, 1675. It is a curious mixture of valuable information with the crude speculations that formed much of the, so called, science of that day-yet giving evidence of the value of the new light that had been already thrown on the path of knowledge by directing the attention to experi

* Ibid., p. 197.

mental research, of which it contains a record exhibiting much patient investigation. It is also an interesting document, being one of the very early communications to the Royal Society, during the Presidency of Lord Brouncker. A few further extracts from it may be entertaining, and if they induce us of the 19th century to smile at the strange notions which such men as Lord Bacon and John Evelyn could think worthy of notice, the smile will be anything rather than a sneer, and will be quickly followed by a feeling of gratitude to those great men, who, born in days of comparative ignorance, were nevertheless so far beyond the times in which they lived, that they could perceive and point out the very course which has obtained for science the enlarged boundary she now possesses: and to the Society which first made the cause of science a national question, and under whose auspices England has attained an eminence which all her sons must ardently pray she may never lose.

A passage near the commencement of the "Discourse of Earth," is so characteristic of the style of writing of the period, that it is worth extracting. After a modest disclaiming of his own powers, Evelyn goes on to say, "There are few here, I presume, who know not upon how innocent and humble a subject I have long since diverted my thoughts; and, therefore, I hope they will not be displeased, or think it unworthy of their patience, if from their more sublime and noble speculations (and which do often carry them to converse among the brighter orbs and heavenly bodies) they descend awhile, and fix their eyes upon the earth, which I make the present argument of my discourse. I had once indeed, pitched upon a subject of somewhat of a more brisk and lively nature; for what is there in nature

so sluggish and dull as earth? What more spiritual and active than vegetation, and what the earth produces? But this, as a province becoming a more steady hand and penetrating wit than mine to cultivate, (unless where it transitorily comes in my way to speak of salts and ferments,) I leave to those of this learned society, who have already given such admirable essays of what they will be more able to accomplish upon that useful and curious theme; and, therefore, I beg leave that I may confine myself to my more proper element, the earth, which though the lowest and most inferior of them all, yet is so subservient and necessary to vegetation, that without it, there could hardly be any such thing in nature." He then gives a long account of different strata of earths, &c., in which some of the phraseology sounds strangely to modern ears-for instance, "marsh-earth," is said to be "the most churlish," and marl, “ of a cold, sad nature." The two following passages are among those which cannot be read without a smile, "If, upon excavating a pit, the mould you exhaust do more than fill it again, Virgil tell us 'tis a good augury; upon which Laurembergius affirms, that at Wellemberg, in Germany, where the mould lies so close, as it does not replenish the foss out of which it has been dug, the corn which is sown in that country soon degenerates into rye; and what is still more remarkable, that the rye sown in Thuringia (where the earth is less compacted) reverts, after three crops, to be wheat again."

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"My Lord Bacon directs to the observation of the rainbow, where its extremity seems to rest, as pointing to a more roscid and fertile mould; but this, I conceive, may be very fallacious, it having two horns, or bases, which are ever opposite."

Among such strange ideas, which, however, bear

but a very trifling proportion to the bulk of practical information which was probably new and valuable to the agriculturist of those days, there is the dawning of a true knowledge of Vegetable Physiology. The indispensable importance of water, the probable influence of the atmosphere, both on the plants themselves, and on the soil, the strong suspicion at least, "that plants do more than obscurely respire, and exercise a kind of peristaltic motion," are among the indications of an approach to truth, and when we remember that about this time Grew was employed on the "Anatomy of Plants," we may fairly trace back to these days the beginning of the Science, properly so called, which is the subject of this little book; nor can better words be found with which to conclude it, than those of Evelyn, speaking of the "Groves and Woods"-" But I cease to expatiate farther on these wonders, that I may not anticipate the pleasures with which the serious contemplator on those stupendous works of Nature (or rather God of Nature) will find himself wrapt and transported, were his contemplations only applied to the production of a single tree."*

* Sylva, Book 4, p. 343.

THE END.