_Of the Maple._
1. The maple [_acer minus_] (of which authors (see Salmasius upon
_Solinus_, c. 33.) reckon very many kinds) was of old held in equal
estimation almost with the citron; especially the _bruscum_, the
French-maple and the _pavonaceus_, peacocks-tail maple, which is that
sort so elegantly undulated, and crisped into variety of curles, as
emulates the famous _citria_. It were a most laudable attempt, if some
would enquire out, and try the planting of such sorts as are not
indigenes amongst us; such as is especially the German _Aier_, and that
of Virginia, not yet cultivated here, but an excellent tree: And if this
were extended to other timber, and exotic trees likewise, it would prove
of extraordinary benefit and ornament to the publick, and were worthy
even of the royal care. They are all produced of seeds contain’d in the
folliacles and keys, or birds-tongues (as they are call’d) like the ash,
(after a year’s interrment) and like to it, affect a sound, and a dry
mould; growing both in woods and hedge-rows, especially in the latter;
which if rather hilly than low, affords the fairest timber. It is also
propagated by layers and suckers. By shredding up the boughs to a head,
I have caused it to shoot to a wonderful height in a little time; but if
you will lop it for the fire, let it be done in January; and indeed it
is observ’d to be of noxious influence to the subnascent plants of other
kinds, by reason of a clammy dew which it sheds upon them, and therefore
they would not be indulg’d in pollards, or spreading trees, but to
thicken under-woods and copses. The timber is far superior to beech for
all uses of the turner, who seeks it for dishes, cups, trays, trenchers,
&c. as the joyner for tables, inlayings, and for the delicateness of the
grain, when the knurs and nodosities are rarely diapred, which does much
advance its price: Our turners will work it so thin, that it is almost
transparent: Also for the lightness (under the name _Aier_) imploy’d
often by those who make musical instruments: Also that especially, which
grows in Friuli, Carniola, and Saltzburglandt: There is a larger sort,
which we call the sycomor.
2. But the description of this lesser maple, and the ancient value of
it, is worth the citing. _Acer operum elegantiâ, & subtilitate cedro
secundum; plura ejus genera: Album, quod praecipui candoris vocatur
Gallicum: In Transpadana Italia, transque Alpes nascens. Alterum genus,
crispo macularum discursu, qui cum excellentior fuit, à similitudine
caudæ pavonum nomen accepit._
‘The maple, (says Pliny) for the elegancy and fineness of the wood,
is next to the very cedar it self. There are several kinds of it,
especially the white, which is wonderfully beautiful; this is
call’d the French-maple, and grows in that part of Italy, that is
on the other side of Po beyond the Alpes: The other has a curl’d
grain, so curiously maculated, that from a near resemblance, it was
usually call’d the Peacock’s-tail, &c.’
He goes on to commend that of Istria, and that growing on the mountains
for the best: But in the next chapter; _Pulcherrimum vero est bruscum,
multoque excellentius etiamnum mollusculum, tuber utrumque arboris ejus.
Bruscum intortiùs crispum, molluscum simplicius sparsum; et si
magnitudinem mensarum caperet, haud dubiè præferretur cedro, nunc intra
pugillares, lectorumque silicios aut laminas, &c. è brusco fiunt mensæ
nigrescentes, &c._ Plin. _l._ 16. c. 15, 16.
‘The _bruscum_, or Knur is wonderfully fair, but the _molluscum_ is
counted most precious; both of them knobs and swellings out of the
tree. The _bruscum_ is more intricately crisp’d; the _molluscum_
not so much; and had we trees large enough to saw into planks for
tables, ’twould be preferr’d before cedar, (or citron, for so some
copies read it) but now they use it only for small table-books, and
with its thin boards to wainscot bed-testers with, _&c._ The
_bruscum_ is of a blackish kind, with which they make tables.’
Thus far Pliny. And such spotted tables were the famous Tigrin, and
Pantherine curiosities of; not so call’d from being supported with
figures carved like those beasts, as some conceive, and was in use even
in our grand-fathers days, but from its natural spots and maculations,
_hem, quantis facultatibus æstimavere ligneas maculas!_ as Tertullian
crys out, _de Pallio_, c, 5. Such a table was that of Cicero’s, which
cost him 10000 _Sesterces_; such another had Asinius Gallus. That of
King Juba was sold for 15000, and another which I read of, valu’d at
140000 H.S. which at about 3d. sterling, arrives to a pretty sum; and
yet that of the Mauritanian Ptoleme, was far richer, containing four
foot and an half diameter, three inches thick, which is reported to have
been sold for its weight in gold: Of that value they were, and so madly
luxurious the age, that when they at any time reproach’d their wives for
their wanton expensiveness in pearl and other rich trifles, they were
wont to retort, and turn the tables upon their husbands. The knot of the
timber was the most esteem’d, and is said to be much resembled by the
female cypress: We have now, I am almost persuaded, as beautiful planks
of some walnut-trees, near the root; and yew, ivy, rose-wood, ash,
thorn, and olive, I have seen incomparable pieces; but the great art was
in the seasoning, and politure; for which last, the rubbing with a man’s
hand who came warm out of the bath, was accounted better than any cloth,
as Pliny reports. Some there be who contend, this citern was a part near
the root of the cedar, which, as they describe it, is very oriental and
odoriferous; but most of the learned favour the citron, and that it grew
not far from our Tangier, about the foot of Mount Atlas, whence haply
some industrious person might procure of it from the Moors; and I did
not forget to put his then Excellency my Lord H. Howard (since his Grace
the Duke of Norfolk) in mind of it; who I hoped might have opportunities
of satisfying our curiosity, that by comparing it with those elegant
woods, which both our own countries, and the Indies furnish, we might
pronounce something in the controversie: But his not going so far into
the countrey, and the disorder which happen’d at his being there, quite
frustrated this expectation: Here I think good to add, what honest
Palissy philosophises after his plain manner, about the reason of those
pretty undulations and chamfers, which we so frequently find in divers
woods, which he takes to be the descent, as well as ascent of moisture:
For what else (says he) becomes of that water which we often encounter
in the cavities, when many branches divaricate, and spread themselves at
the tops of great trees (especially pollards) unless (according to its
natural appetite) it sink into the very body of the stem through the
pores? For example, in the walnut, you shall find, when ’tis old, that
the wood is admirably figur’d, and, as it were, marbl’d, and therefore
much more esteem’d by the joyners, cabinet-makers, and _ouvrages de
marqueterie_, in-layers, &c. than the young, which is paler of colour,
and without any notable grain, as they call it. For the rain distilling
along the branches, when many of them break out into clusters from the
stem, sinks in, and is the cause of these marks; since we find it
exceedingly full of pores: Do but plane off a thin chip, or sliver from
one of these old trees, and interposing it ’twixt your eye and the
light, you shall observe it to be full of innumerable holes (much more
perspicuous and ample, by the application of a good{119:1} microscope.)
But above all, notable for these extravagant damaskings and characters,
is the maple; and ’tis notorious, that this tree is very full of
branches from the root to its very summit, by reason that it produces no
considerable fruit: These arms being frequently cut, the head is more
surcharged with them, which spreading like so many rays from a centre,
form that hollowness at the top of the stem whence they shoot, capable
of containing a good quantity of water every time it rains: This sinking
into the pores, as was before hinted, is compell’d to divert its course
as it passes through the body of the tree, where-ever it encounters the
knot of any of those branches which were cut off from the stem; because
their roots not only deeply penetrate towards the heart, but are
likewise of themselves very hard and impervious; and the frequent
obliquity of this course of the subsiding moisture, by reason of these
obstructions, is, as may be conceived, the cause of those curious
works, which we find remarkable in this, and other woods, whose branches
grow thick from the stem: But for these curious contextures, consult
rather the learned Dr. Grew. We have shewed how by culture, and
stripping up, it arrives to a goodly tree; and surely there were some of
them of large bulk, and noble shades, that Virgil should chuse it for
the Court of his Evander (one of his worthiest princes, in his best of
poems) sitting in his maple-throne; and when he brings Æneas into the
royal cottage, he makes him this memorable complement; greater, says
great Cowley, than ever was yet spoken at the Escurial, the Louvre, or
White-hall.
This humble roof, this rustique court, said he,
Receiv’d Alcides crown’d with victory:
Scorn not (great guest) the steps where he has trod,
But contemn wealth, and imitate a God.{120:1}
The savages in Canada, when the sap rises in the maple, by an incision
in the tree, extract the liquor; and having evaporated a reasonable
quantity thereof (as suppose 7 or 8 pound), there will remain one pound,
as sweet and perfect sugar, as that which is gotten out of the cane;
part of which sugar has been for many years constantly sent to Rouen in
Normandy, to be refin’d: There is also made of this sugar an excellent
syrup of maiden-hair and other capillary plants, prevalent against the
_scorbut_; though Mr. Ray thinks otherwise, by reason of the saccharine
substance remaining in the decoction: See _Synops. Stirp._ & Tom. III.
_Dendrolog._ de Acere. p. 93, 94.
FOOTNOTES:
{119:1} Not invented in Palissy’s days.
{120:1}
........... Hæc (inquit) limina victor
Alcides............