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A DISCOURSE, &c.

means they wound the roots, (which gangrenes, and sometimes kills thetree) and if the holes be not filled, the air and moisture occasion mouldi-nefs: fo that when all is summed together, there is nothing comparableto frequent stirring the ground, opening the dry clod, and watering uponthat ; and if you lay about them any fern-brakes, or other trash, cappedwith a little earth to entertain the moisture and skreen it from the heat,let it not be wadded so close, or suffered to lie so long as to contract anymustinefs, but rather loose and easy, for the free intercourse of the air,and to break the more intense ardours of the sun-beams.

Thus I have exercised your Lordships’ and these noble Gentlemen’spatience with a dull discourse of Earth, Mould, and Soil ; but I trustnot altogether without some fruit, as the subject has relation to what hasso lately been produced, and with happy event made out by those learnedpersons who have entertained this illustrious Society with the Anatomyof plants.