Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/91

 Rh into leaf than its supporters, but I know not that any other difference was to be perceived between them. The tree which wanted the support of the ground was, some years after, blown down, so that we have now no opportunity of examining the course of its vessels, or the mode in which successive layers of wood were deposited in its branches; but the experiment is easily repeated.

In the weeping variety of the Common Ash, now so frequent in gardens, the branches are completely inverted as to position, yet the returning fluids appear to run exactly in their natural direction, depositing new wood, as they are situated above the buds or leaves; and if the end of any branch be cut, all beyond (or below) the next bud dies; so that in this case gravitation, to which Mr. Knight attributes considerable power over the returning fluids, ''Phil. Trans, for'' 1804, does not counteract the ordinary course of nature.