AND FENCES. 25

the bark every where, which acted asa filtre, or very fine ftrainer, and ferved to prepare the fap for entering into the finer veffels of the plant. But the experiments of Du Hamel, Bonnet, and others, have now fufficiently demonftrated, that little or no moiiture is imbibed through the pores of the bark of roots; but that the whole nourifhment of the plant is abforb- ed at the extremities only of the fmalleft ramifications of the roots. Hence, then, it follows, that the more numerous thefe {mall ramifications are, the more nume- rous will be the mouths of the plant, and the nourifhment imbibed by them will be, in proportion, more abundant. But if a plant be allowed to remain undif- turbed for a confiderable length of time in a good foil, its roots will be extended toa great diftance around it, at the ex- tremities of which roots will be found al- moit all thofe mouths that imbibe the juices which nourifh the plant; fo that ~when thefe extended roots are cut off near the ftem, as muft happen when the trees are to be tran{planted, the greateft part of the{mall fibres are cut away, and the

* roots

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