DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7595#0045
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
33
works, left little room to doubt, but that it had an chap. i.
orierin in common with the more substantial forms of
the style. At last a friend, to whose assistance I have
been indebted in many parts of this undertaking, sug-
gested to me, that it might have been borrowed from
the appearance assumed by the bark of the rods when
about to fall off, in consequence of decay. In pur-
suance of this suggestion, I attended particularly to
branches so situated, and met with several facts tend-
ing to confirm this conjecture. In every kind of tree,
the bark curls previously to dropping off, in conse-
quence of the unequal contraction of the layers of
which it is composed. This takes place variously, in
different kinds of wood ; in some the bark bends
inwards, in some outwards, in some across the branch,
and in some lengthwise. I have observed, that the
bark of the willow always bends concave outwards,
and lengthwise with respect to the branch. One of
the first distinct examples I met with of this, was on
a pailing of willow at St. Mary's Isle in Galloway, in
the summer of 1792, as shewn in Plate X. Fig. 1. The Plate x.
rail had been made entirely of fresh wood, and the
posts having all struck root, had then the third year's
growth upon them. The horizontal bars had died of
f
33
works, left little room to doubt, but that it had an chap. i.
orierin in common with the more substantial forms of
the style. At last a friend, to whose assistance I have
been indebted in many parts of this undertaking, sug-
gested to me, that it might have been borrowed from
the appearance assumed by the bark of the rods when
about to fall off, in consequence of decay. In pur-
suance of this suggestion, I attended particularly to
branches so situated, and met with several facts tend-
ing to confirm this conjecture. In every kind of tree,
the bark curls previously to dropping off, in conse-
quence of the unequal contraction of the layers of
which it is composed. This takes place variously, in
different kinds of wood ; in some the bark bends
inwards, in some outwards, in some across the branch,
and in some lengthwise. I have observed, that the
bark of the willow always bends concave outwards,
and lengthwise with respect to the branch. One of
the first distinct examples I met with of this, was on
a pailing of willow at St. Mary's Isle in Galloway, in
the summer of 1792, as shewn in Plate X. Fig. 1. The Plate x.
rail had been made entirely of fresh wood, and the
posts having all struck root, had then the third year's
growth upon them. The horizontal bars had died of
f