ll the glasses are opened.

1074. Some of the acorns planted by the squirrel of Monmouthshire may be
now in a fair way to become, at the end of some centuries, venerable
trees; for not the least remarkable quality of oaks is the strong
principle of life with which they are endued. In Major Rooke's "Sketch
of the forest of Sherwood" we find it stated that, on some timber cut
down in Berkland and Bilhaugh, letters were found stamped in the bodies
of the trees, denoting the king's reign in which they were marked. The
bark appears to have been cut off, and then the letters to have been cut
in, and the next year's wood to have grown over them without adhering to
where the bark had been cut out. The ciphers were found to be of James
I., William and Mary, and one of King John. One of the ciphers of James
was about one foot within the tree, and one foot from the centre. It was
cut down in 1786. The tree must have been two feet in diameter, or two
yards in circumference, when the mark was cut. A tree of this size is
generally estimated at 120 years' growth; which number being subtracted
from the middle year of the reign of James, would carry the year back to
1492, which would be about the period of its being planted. The tree
with the cipher of William and Mary displayed its mark about nine inches
within the tree, and three feet three inches from the centre. This tree
was felled in 1786. The cipher of John was eighteen inches within the
tree, and rather more than a foot from the centre. The middle year of
the reign of that monarch was 1207. By subtracting from this 120, the
number of years requisite for a tree's growth to arrive at the diameter
of two feet, the date of its being planted would seem to have been 1085,
or about twenty years after the Conquest.

[Illustration: CELLULAR DEVELOPMENT.]

1075. Considering the great endurance of these trees, we are necessarily
led to inquire into the means by which they are enabled to arrive at
such strength and maturity; and whether it may be considered as a
humiliation we will not determine, but, with all the ingenious
mechanical contrivances of man, we are still unable to define the limits
of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. "Plants have been described by
naturalists, who would determine the limits of the two kingdoms, as
organized living bodies, without volition or locomotion, destitute of a
mouth or intestinal cavity, which, when detached from their place of
growth, die, and, in