12. That all these, especially the fir and pine will prosper well with

us, is more than probable, because it is a kind of demonstration, that

they did heretofore grow plentifully in Cumberland, Cheshire, Stafford,

and Lancashire, if the multitudes of these trees to this day found

entire, and buried under the earth, though suppos’d to have been

o’rethrown and cover’d so ever since the universal Deluge, be indeed of

this species: Dr. Plot speaks of a fir-tree in Staffordshire, of 150

foot high, which some think of spontaneous growth; besides several more

so irregularly standing, as shews them to be natives: But to put this

at last out of controversie, see the extract of Mr. de la Prim’s letter

to the Royal Society, _Transact._ n. 277, and the old map of Crout, and

of the yet (or lately) remaining firs, growing about Hatfield in the

commons, flourishing from the shrubs and stubs of those trees, to which

I refer the reader. As for buried trees of this sort, the late Dr.

Merrett, in his _Pinax_, mentions several places of this nation, where

subterraneous-trees are found; as namely, in Cornwal, _ad finem terræ,

in agris Flints_; in Penbroke-shire towards the shore, where they so

abound, _ut totum littus_ (says the Doctor) _tanquam silva cædua

apparet_; in Cheshire also (as we said) Cumberland and Anglesey, and

several of our Euro-boreal tracts, and are called Noah’s-ark. By

Chatnesse in Lancashire (says Camden) the low mossie ground was no very

long time since, carried away by an impetuous flood, and in that place

now lies a low irriguous vale, where many prostrate trees have been

digged out: And from another I receive, that in the moors of

Somersetshire (towards Bridgwater) some lengths of pasture growing much

withered, and parched more than other places of the same ground, in a

great drowth, it was observ’d to bear the length and shape (in gross) of

trees; they digg’d, and found in the spot oaks, as black as ebony, and

have been from hence instructed, to take up many hundreds of the same

kind: In a fenny tract of the Isles of Axholme, (lying part in

Lincolnshire, and part in Yorkshire) have been found oaks five yards in

compass, and fifteen in length, some of them erect, and standing as they

grew; in firm earth below the moors, with abundance of fir, which lie

more stooping than the oak; some being 36 yards long, besides the tops:

And so great is the store of these subterraneans, as the inhabitants

have for divers years carried away above 2000 cart-loads yearly: See

Dugdal’s _History of Draining_. This might be of good use for the like

detections in Essex, Lincolnshire, and places either low situate, or

adjacent to the sea; also at Binfield Heath in Kent, &c. These trees

were (some think) carried away in times past, by some accident of

inundation, or by waters undermining the ground, till their own weight,

and the winds bow’d them down, and overwhelm’d them in the mud: For ’tis

observ’d, that these trees are no where found so frequently, as in boggy

places; but that the burning of these trees so very bright, should be an

argument they were fir, is not necessary, since the bituminous quality

of such earth, may have imparted it to them; and Camden denies them to

be fir-trees; suggesting the query; whether there may not possibly grow

trees even under the ground, as well as other things? Theophrastus

indeed, l. iv. c. 8. speaks of whole woods; bays and olives, bearing

fruit; and that of some oaks bearing acorns, and those even under the

sea; which was so full of plants and other trees, as (’tis said)

Alexander’s forces sailing to the Indies, were much hindred by them.

There are in Cumberland, on the sea-shore, trees sometimes discover’d at

low-water, and at other times that lie buried in the sand; and in other

mossie places of that county, ’tis reported, the people frequently dig

up the bodies of vast trees without boughs, and that by direction of the

dew alone in Summer; for they observe it never lies upon that part under

which those trees are interr’d. These particulars I find noted by the

ingenious author of the _Britannia Baconica_. How vast a forest, and

what goodly trees were once standing in Holland, and those

Low-countries, till about the year 860, that an hurricane obstructing

the mouth of the Rhine near Catwic, made that horrid devastation, good

authors mention; and they do this day find monstrous bodies and

branches, (nay with the very nuts, most intire) of prostrate and buried

trees, in the Veene, especially towards the south, and at the bottom of

the waters: Also near Bruges in Flanders, whole woods have been found

twenty ells deep, in which the trunks, boughs, and leaves do so exactly

appear, as to distinguish their several species, with the series of

their leaves yearly falling; of which see Boetius de Boot.

Dr. Plot in his _Nat. Hist._ of _Oxford_ and _Staffordshires_ mentions

divers subterraneous oaks, black as ebony, and of mineral substance for

hardness; (see cap. 3. oak) quite through the whole substance of the

timber, caus’d (as he supposes, and learnedly evinces) by a vitriolic

humour of the earth; of affinity to the nature of the ink-galls, which

that kind of tree produces: Of these he speaks of some found sunk under

the ground, in an upright and growing posture, to the perpendicular

depth of sixty foot; of which one was three foot diameter, of an

hardness emulating the politest ebony: But these trees had none of them

their roots, but were found plainly to have been cut off by the kerf:

There were great store of hasel-nuts, whose shells were as sound as

ever, but no kernel within. It is there the inquisitive author gives you

his conjecture, how these deep interments happen’d; namely, by our

ancesters (many ages since) clearing the ground for tillage, and when

wood was not worth converting to other uses, digging trenches by the

sides of many trees, in which they buried some; and others they slung

into quagmires, and lakes to make room for more profitable agriculture:

But I refer you to the chapter. In the mean time, concerning this

mossie-wood (as they usually term it, because, for the most part, dug-up

in mossie and moory-bogs where they cut for turff) it is highly probable

(with the learned Mr. Ray) that these places were many ages since, part

of firm-land covered with wood, afterwards undermined, and overwhelmed

by the violence of the sea, and so continuing submerg’d, till the rivers

brought down earth, and mud enough to cover the trees, filling up the

shallows, and restoring them to the _terra-firma_ again, which he

illustrates from the like accident upon the coast of Suffolk, about

Dunwich, where the sea does at this day, and hath for many years past,

much incroach’d upon the land, undermining, and subverting by degrees, a

great deal of high-ground; so as by ancient writings it appears, a whole

wood of more than a mile and half, at present is so far within the sea:

Now if in succeeding ages (as probable it is enough) the sea shall by

degrees be fill’d up, either by its own working, or by earth brought

down by land-floods, still subsiding to the bottom, and surmounting the

tops of these trees, and so the space again added to the firm-land; the

men that shall then live in those parts, will, it’s likely, dig-up these

trees, and as much wonder how they came there, as we do at present those

we have been speaking of.

In the mean time, to put an end to the various conjectures, concerning

the causes of so many trees being found submerg’d, for the most part

attributed to the destruction made by the Noatick inundation; after all

has been said of what was found in the level of Hatfield, (drain’d at

the never to be forgotten charge and industry of Sir Cornelius

Vermuiden) I think there will need no more enquiry: For there was

discover’d trees not only of fir and pitch, but of very goodly oaks,

even to the length of 100 foot, which were sold at 15 l. the tree,

black and hard as ebony; all their roots remaining in the soil, and

their natural posture, with their bodies prostrate by them, pointing for

the most part north-east: And of such there seem’d to be millions, of

all the usual species natural to this countrey, sound and firm ash only

excepted, which were become so rotten, and soft, as to be frequently cut

through with the spade only; whereas willows and other tender woods,

continu’d very sound and entire: Many of these subterranean trees of all

sorts, were found to have been cut and burnt down, squar’d and converted

for several uses, into boards, bales, stakes, piles, barrs, &c. some

trees half riven, with the wedges sticking in them; broken axe-heads in

shape of sacrificing instruments, and frequently several coins of the

emperor Vespasian, &c. There was among others, one prodigious oak of 120

foot in length, and 12 in diameter, 10 foot in the middle, and 6 at the

small end; so as by computation, this monster must have been a great

deal longer, and for this tree was offered 20 l. The truth and history

of all this is so perfectly describ’d by Mr. Alan. de la Pryme (inserted

among the _Transactions_ of the R. Society) that there needs no more to

be said of it to evince, that not only here, but in other places, where

such trees are found in the like circumstances, that it has been the

work and effects of vast armies of the Romans, when finding they could

not with all their force subdue the barbarous inhabitants, by reason of

their continual issuing out of those intricate fortresses and

impediments, they caused whole forests to be cut down by their legions

and soldiers, whom they never suffer’d to remain idle during their

Winter quarters, but were continually exercis’d in such publick and

useful works, as required multitude of hands; by which discipline they

became hardy, active, and less at leisure to mutiny or corrupt one

another: I do not affirm that this answers all submerg’d trees, but of

very many imputed to other causes.

But we shall enquire farther concerning these subterranean productions

anon, and whether the earth, as well as the water, have not the virtue

of strange transmutations: These trees are found in moors, by poking

with staves of three or four foot length, shod with iron.

13. In Scotland many submerged oaks are found near the river Neffe; and

(as we noted) there is a most beautiful sort of fir, or rather pine,

bearing small sharp cones, (some think it the Spanish _pinaster_)

growing upon the mountains; of which, from the late Marquess of Argyle,

I had sent me some seeds, which I have sown with tolerable success; and

I prefer them before any other, because they grow both very erect, and

fixing themselves stoutly, need little, or no support. Near Loughbrun,

’twixt the Lough, and an hill, they grow in such quantity, that from the

spontaneous fall, ruin and decay of the trees lying cross one another to

a man’s height, partly covered with mosse, and partly earth, and grass

(which rots, fills up, and grows again) a considerable hill has in

process of time been raised to almost their very tops, which being an

accident of singular remark, I thought fit to mention. Both fir and

pine (sociable trees) planted pretty near together (shread and clipt at

proper seasons) make stately, noble, and very beautiful skreens and

fences to protect orange, myrtile and other curious greens, from the

scorching of the sun, and ruffling winds, preferrable to walls: See how

to be planted and cultivated with the dimensions of a skreen, in the

rules for the defence of gardens, annext to _de la Quintin_, num. xv. by

Mr. London, and Mr. Wise. In the mean time, none of these sorts are to

be mingled in taller woods or copp’ces, in which they starve one

another, and lose their beauty. And now those who would see what

Scotland produces (of innumerable trees of this kind) should consult the

learned Sir Rob. Sibald.

14. For the many, and almost universal use of these trees, both sea and

land will plead,

The useful pine for ships..........{239:1}

Hence Papinius 6. _Thebaid._ calls it _audax abies_. They make our best

mast, sheathing, scaffold-poles, &c. heretofore the whole vessel; It is

pretty (saith Pliny) to consider, that those trees which are so much

sought after for shipping, should most delight in the highest of

mountains, as if it fled from the sea on purpose, and were afraid to

descend into the waters. With fir we likewise make all intestine works,

as wainscot, floors, pales, balks, laths, boxes, bellies for all musical

instruments in general, nay the ribs and sides of that enormous

stratagem, the so famous Trojan{239:2} horse, may be thought to be

built of this material, and if the poet mistake not,

..........The ribs with deal they fit.{240:1}

There being no material more obedient and ready to bend for such works.

In Holland they receive their best mast out of Norway, and even as far

as Moscovy, which are best esteemed, (as consisting of long fibers,

without knots) but deal-boards from the first; and though fir rots

quickly in salt-water, it does not so soon perish in fresh; nor do they

yet refuse it in merchant-ships, especially the upper-parts of them,

because of its lightness: The true pine was ever highly commended by the

Ancients for naval architecture, as not so easily decaying; and we read

that Trajan caused vessels to be built both of the true, and spurious

kind, well pitch’d, and over-laid with lead, which perhaps might hint

our modern sheathing with that metal at present. Fir is exceeding smooth

to polish on, and therefore does well under gilding-work, and takes

black equal with the pear-tree: Both fir, and especially pine, succeed

well in carving, as for capitals, festoons, nay, statues, especially

being gilded, because of the easiness of the grain, to work and take the

tool every way; and he that shall examine it nearly, will find that

famous image of the B. Virgin at Loretto, (reported to be carved by the

hands of St. Luke) to be made of fir, as the grain easily discovers it:

The _torulus_ (as Vitruvius terms it) and heart of deal, kept dry,

rejecting the _albumen_ and white, is everlasting; nor does there any

wood so well agree with the glew, as it, or is so easie to be wrought:

It is also excellent for beams, and other timber-work in houses, being

both light, and exceedingly strong, and therefore of very good use for

bars, and bolts of doors, as well as for doors themselves, and for the

beams of coaches, a board of an inch and half thick, will carry the body

of a coach with great ease, by reason of a natural spring which it has,

not easily violated. You shall find, that of old they made carts and

other carriages of it; and for piles to superstruct on in boggy grounds;

most of Venice, and Amsterdam is built upon them, with so excessive

charge, as some report, the foundations of their houses cost as much, as

what is erected on them; there being driven in no fewer than 13659 great

masts of this timber, under the new Stadt-house of Amsterdam. For

scaffolding also there is none comparable to it; and I am sure we find

it an extraordinary saver of oak, where it may be had at reasonable

price. I will not complain what an incredible mass of ready money, is

yearly exported into the northern countries for this sole commodity,

which might all be saved were we industrious at home, or could have them

out of Virginia, there being no country in the whole world stor’d with

better; besides, another sort of wood which they call cypress, much

exceeding either fir or pine for this purpose; being as tough and

springy as yew, and bending to admiration; it is also lighter than

either, and everlasting in wet or dry; so as I much wonder, that we

enquire no more after it: In a word, not only here and there an house,

but whole towns, and great cities are, and have been built of fir only;

nor that alone in the north, as Mosco, &c. where the very streets are

pav’d with it, (the bodies of the trees lying prostrate one by one in

manner of a raft) but the renowned city of Constantinople; and nearer

home Tholose in France, was within little more than an hundred years,

most of fir, which is now wholly marble and brick, after 800 houses had

been burnt, as it often chances at Constantinople; but where no accident

even of this devouring nature, will at all move them to re-edifie with

more lasting materials. To conclude with the uses of fir, we have most

of our pot-ashes of this wood, together with torch, or funebral-staves;

nay, and of old, spears of it, if we may credit Virgil’s Amazonian

combat,

................. She prest

A long fir-spear through his exposed breast.{242:1}

Lastly, the very chips, or shavings of deal-boards, are of other use

than to kindle fires alone: Thomas Bartholinus in his _Medicina Danorum

Dissert._ 7, &c. where he disclaims the use of hops in beer, (as

pernicious and malignant, and from several instances how apt it is to

produce and usher in infections, nay, plagues, &c.) would substitute in

its place, the shavings of deal-boards, as he affirms, to give a

grateful odor to the drink; and how soveraign those resinous-woods, the

tops of fir, and pines, are against the scorbut, gravel in the kidneys,

&c. we generally find: It is in the same chapter, that he commends also

wormwood, _marrubium_, _chamelæagnum_, sage, tamarisc, and almost any

thing, rather than hops. The bark of the pine heals ulcers; and the

inner rind cut small, contus’d, and boil’d in store of water, is an

excellent remedy for burns and scalds, washing the sore with the

decoction, and applying the softned bark: It is also soveraign against

frozen and benumb’d limbs: The distill’d water of the green cones takes

away the wrinkles of the face, dipping cloaths therein, and laying them

on it becomes a cosmetic not to be despis’d. The pine, or _picea_ buried

in the earth never decay: From the latter transudes a very bright and

pellucid gum; hence we have likewise rosin; also of the pine are made

boxes and barrels for dry goods; yea, and it is cloven into (_scandulæ_)

shingles for the covering of houses in some places; also hoops for

wine-vessels, especially of the easily flexible wild-pine; not to forget

the kernels (this tree being always furnish’d with cones, some ripe,

others green) of such admirable use in emulsions; and for tooth-pickers,

even the very leaves are commended: In sum, they are plantations which

exceedingly improve the air, by their odoriferous and balsamical

emissions and, for ornament, create a perpetual Spring where they are

plentifully propagated. And if it could be proved that the

_almugim_-trees, recorded{243:1} 1 _Reg._ 11, 12. (whereof pillars for

that famous temple, and the royal palace, harps, and psalteries, &c.

were made) were of this sort of wood (as some doubt not to assert) we

should esteem it at another rate; yet we know Josephus affirms they were

a kind of pine-tree, though somewhat resembling the fig-tree wood to

appearance, as of a most lustrous candor. In the 2 _Chron._ 2, 8. there

is mention of almug-trees to grow in Lebanon; and if so, methinks it

should rather be (as Buxtorf thinks) a kind of cedar; (yet we find fir

also in the same period) for we have seen a whiter sort of it, even very

white as well as red; though some affirm it to be but the sap of it (so

our cabinet-makers call it) I say, there were both fir and pine-trees

also growing upon those mountains, and the learned Meibomius, (in that

curious treatise of his _De Fabrica Triremium_) shews that there were

such trees brought out of India, or Ophir. In the mean time, Mr. Purchas

informs us, that Dr. Dee writ a laborious treatise almost wholly of this

subject, (but I could never have the good hap to see it) wherein, as

commissioner for Solomon’s timber, and like a learned architect and

planter, he has summon’d a jury of twelve sorts of trees; namely, 1. the

fir, 2. box, 3. cedar, 4. cypress, 5. ebony, 6. ash, 7. juniper, 8.

larch, 9. olive, 10. pine, 11. oak, and 12. sandal-trees, to examine

which of them were this _almugim_, and at last seems to concur with

Josephus, in favour of pine or fir; who possibly, from some antient

record, or fragment of the wood it self, might learn something of it;

and ’tis believ’d, that it was some material both odoriferous to the

scent, and beautiful to the eye, and of fittest temper to refract

sounds; besides its serviceableness for building; all which properties

are in the best sort of pine or _thyina_, as Pliny calls it; or perhaps

some other rare wood, of which the Eastern Indies are doubtless the best

provided; and yet I find, that those vast beams which sustain’d the roof

of St. Peter’s church at Rome, laid (as reported) by Constantine the

Great, were made of the pitch-tree, and have lasted from _anno_ 336,

down to our days, above 1300 years.

13. But now whilst I am reciting the uses of these beneficial

trees,{245:1} Mr. Winthorp presents the Royal Society with the process

of making the tar and pitch in New-England, which we thus abbreviate.

Tar is made out of that sort of pine-tree, from which naturally

turpentine extilleth; and which at its first flowing out, is liquid and

clear; but being hardned by the air, either on the tree, or where-ever

it falls, is not much unlike the Burgundy pitch; and we call them

pitch-pines out of which this gummy substance transudes: They grow upon

the most barren plains, on rocks also, and hills rising amongst those

plains, where several are found blown down, and have lain so many ages,

as that the whole bodies, branches, and roots of the trees being

perished, some certain knots only of the boughs have been left remaining

intire, (these knots are that part where the bough is joyn’d to the body

of the tree) lying at the same distance and posture, as they grew upon

the tree for its whole length. The bodies of some of these trees are not

corrupted through age, but quite consum’d, and reduc’d to ashes, by the

annual burnings of the Indians, when they set their grounds on fire;

which yet has, it seems, no power over these hard knots, beyond a black

scorching; although being laid on heaps, they are apt enough to burn. It

is of these knots they make their tar in New-England, and the country

adjacent, whilst they are well impregnated with that terebinthine, and

resinous matter, which like a balsom, preserves them so long from

putrefaction. The rest of the tree does indeed contain the like

terebinthine sap, as appears (upon any slight incision of bark on the

stem, or boughs) by a small crystalline pearl which will sweat out; but

this, for being more watery and undigested, by reason of the porosity of

the wood, which exposes it to the impressions of the air and wet,

renders the tree more obnoxious; especially, if it lie prostrate with

the bark on, which is a receptacle for a certain intercutaneous worm,

that accelerates its decay. They are the knots then alone, which the

tar-makers amass in heaps, carrying them in carts to some convenient

place not far off, where finding clay or loam fit for their turn, they

lay an hearth of such ordinary stone as they have at hand: This, they

build to such an height from the level of the ground, that a vessel may

stand a little lower than the hearth, to receive the tar as it runs out:

But first, the hearth is made wide, according to the quantity of knots

to be set at once, and that with a very smooth floor of clay, yet

somewhat descending, or dripping from the extream parts to the middle,

and thence towards one of the sides, where a gullet is left for the tar

to run out at. The hearth thus finish’d, they pile the knots one upon

another, after the very same manner as our colliers do their wood for

charcoal; and of a height proportionable to the breadth of the hearth;

and then cover them over with a coat of loam, or clay, (which is best)

or in defect of those, with the best and most tenacious earth the place

will afford; leaving only a small spiracle at the top, whereat to put

the fire in; and making some little holes round about at several

heights, for the admission of so much air, as is requisite to keep it

burning, and to regulate the fire, by opening and stopping them at

pleasure. The process is almost the same with that of making charcoal,

as will appear in due place; for, when it is well on fire, that middle

hole is also stopp’d, and the rest of the registers so govern’d, as the

knots may keep burning, and not be suffocated with too much smoak;

whilst all being now through-heated, the tar runs down to the hearth,

together with some of the more watry sap, which hasting from all parts

towards the middle, is convey’d by the foremention’d gutter, into the

barrel or vessel placed to receive it: Thus, the whole art of tar-making

is no other, than a kind of rude distillation _per descensum_, and might

therefore be as well done in furnaces of large capacity, were it worth

the expence. When the tar is now all melted out, and run, they stop up

all the vents very close; and afterwards find the knots made into

excellent charcoal, preferr’d by the smiths before any other whatsoever,

which is made of wood; and nothing so apt to burn out when their blast

ceaseth; neither do they sparkle in the fire, as many other sorts of

coal do; so as, in defect of sea-coal, they make choice of this, as best

for their use, and give greater prices for it. Of these knots likewise

do the planters split out small slivers, about the thickness of one’s

finger, or somewhat thinner, which serve them to burn instead of

candles; giving a very good light. This they call candle-wood, and it is

in much use both in New-England, Virginia, and amongst the Dutch

planters in their villages; but for that it is something offensive, by

reason of the much fuliginous smoak which comes from it, they commonly

burn it in the chimney-corner, upon a flat stone or iron; except,

occasionally, they carry a single stick in their hand, as there is need

of light to go about the house. It must not be conceiv’d, by what we

have mention’d in the former description of the knots, that they are

only to be separated from the bodies of the trees by devouring time, or

that they are the only materials, out of which tar can be extracted: For

there are in these tracts, millions of trees which abound with the same

sort of knots, and full of turpentine fit to make tar: But the labour of

felling these trees, and of cutting out their knots, would far exceed

the value of the tar; especially, in countries where work-men are so

very dear: But those knots above-mention’d, are provided to hand,

without any other labour, than the gathering only. There are sometimes

found of those sort of pine-trees, the lowest part of whose stems

towards the root is as full of turpentine, as the knots; and of these

also may tar be made: But such trees being rarely found, are commonly

preserved to split into candle-wood; because they will be easily riven

out into any lengths, and scantlings desir’d, much better than the

knots. There be, who pretend an art of as fully impregnating the body of

any living pine-tree, for six or eight foot high; and some have reported

that such an art is practis’d in Norway: But upon several experiments,

by girdling the tree (as they call it) and cutting some of the bark

round, and a little into the wood of the tree, six or eight foot distant

from the ground, it has yet never succeeded; whether the just season of

the year were not observ’d, or what else omitted, were worth the

disquisition; if at least there be any such secret amongst the

Norwegians, Swedes, or any other nation. Of tar, by boiling it to a

sufficient height, is pitch made: And in some places where rosin is

plentiful, a fit proportion of that, may be dissolv’d in the tar whilst

it is boiling, and this mixture is soonest converted to pitch; but it is

of somewhat a differing kind from that which is made of tar only,

without other composition. There is a way which some ship-carpenters in

those countries have us’d, to bring their tar into pitch for any sudden

use; by making the tar so very hot in an iron-kettle, that it will

easily take fire, which when blazing, and set in an airy place, they let

burn so long, till, by taking out some small quantity for trial, being

cold, it appears of a sufficient consistence: Then, by covering the

kettle close, the fire is extinguish’d, and the pitch is made without

more ceremony. There is a process of making rosin also, out of the same

knots, by splitting them out into thin pieces, and then boiling them in

water, which will educe all the resinous matter, and gather it into a

body, which (when cold) will harden into pure rosin. It is moreover to

be understood, that the fir, and most coniferous trees, yield the same

concretes, _lachrymæ_, turpentines, and there is a fir which exstills a

gum not unlike the balm of Gilead, and a sort of _tus_; rosins, hard,

naval stone, liquid pitch, and tar for remedies against the cough,

arthritic and pulmonic affections; are well known, and the chyrurgion

uses them in plaisters also; and in a word, for mechanic and other

innumerable uses; and from the burning fuliginous vapour of these,

especially the rosin, we have our lamp, and printers black, &c. I am

perswaded the pine, pitch and fir trees in Scotland, might yield His

Majesty plenty of excellent tar, were some industrious person employ’d

about the work; so as I wonder it has been so long neglected. But there

is another process not much unlike the former, which is given us by the

present archbishop of Samos, Joseph Georgirenes, in his description of

that, and other islands of the Ægæan.

Their way of making pitch (says he) is thus: They take sapines, that

is, that part of the fir, so far as it hath no knots; and shaving away

the extream parts, leave only that which is nearest to the middle, and

the pith: That which remains, they call _dadi_ (from the old Greek word

Δᾶδες, whence the Latin, _taeda_): These they split into small pieces,

and laying them on a furnace, put fire to the upper part, till they are

all burnt, the liquor in the mean time running from the wood, and let

out from the bottom of the furnace, into a hole made in the ground,

where it continues like oyl: Then they put fire to’t, and stir it about

till it thicken, and has a consistence: After this, putting out the

fire, they cast chalk upon it, and draw it out with a vessel, and lay it

in little places cut out of the ground, where it receives both its form,

and a firmer body for easie transportation: Thus far the archbishop; but

it is not so instructive and methodical as what we have describ’d above.

Other processes for the extracting of these substances, may be seen in

Mr. Ray’s _Hist. Plant._, already mentioned, lib. xxix. cap. 1. And as

to pitch and tar, how they make it near Marselles, in France, from the

pines growing about that city, see _Philos. Trans._ n. 213. p. 291.

_an._ 1696, very well worthy the transcribing, if what is mentioned in

this chapter were at all defective.

I had in the former editions of _Sylva_, plac’d the _larix_ among the

trees which shed their leaves in Winter (as indeed does this) but not

before there is an almost immediate supply of fresh; and may therefore,

both for its similitude, stature, and productions, challenge rank among

the coniferous: We raise it of seeds, and grows spontaneously in Stiria,

Carinthia, and other Alpine Countries: The change of the colour of the

old leaf, made an ignorant gardiner of mine erradicate what I had

brought up with much care, as dead; let this therefore be a warning: The

leaves are thin, pretty long and bristly; the cones small, grow

irregular, as do the branches, like the cypress, a very beautiful tree,

the pondrous branches bending a little, which makes it differ from the

Libanus cedar, to which some would have it ally’d, nor are any found in

Syria. Of the deep wounded bark, exsudes the purest of our

shop-turpentine, (at least as reputed) as also the drug _agaric_: That

it flourishes with us, a tree of good stature (not long since to be seen

about Chelmsford in Essex) sufficiently reproaches our not cultivating

so useful a material for many purposes, where lasting and substantial

timber is required: For we read of beams of no less than 120 foot in

length, made out of this goodly tree, which is of so strange a

composition, that ’twill hardly burn; whence Mantuan, _et robusta larix

igni impenetrabile lignum_: for so Cæsar found it in a castle he

besieg’d, built of it; (the story is recited at large by Vitruvius, l.

2. c. 9.) but see what Philander says upon the place, on his own

experience: Yet the coals thereof were held far better than any other,

for the melting of iron, and the lock-smith; and to say the truth, we

find they burn it frequently as common fuel in the Valtoline, if at

least it be the true _larix_, which they now call _melere_. There is

abundance of this larch timber in the buildings at Venice, especially

about the palaces in Piazza San Marco, where I remember Scamozzi says he

himself us’d much of it, and infinitely commends it. Nor did they only

use it in houses, but in naval architecture also: The ship mention’d by

Witsen (a late Dutch writer of that useful art) to have been found not

long since in the Numidian Sea, twelve fathoms under water, being

chiefly built of this timber, and cypress, both reduc’d to that

induration and hardness, as greatly to resist the fire, and the sharpest

tool; nor was any thing perished of it, though it had lain above a

thousand and four hundred years submerg’d: The decks were cover’d with

linnen, and plates of lead, fixed with nails guilt, and the intire ship

(which contain’d thirty foot in length) so stanch, as not one drop of

water had soaked into any room. Tiberius we find built that famous

bridge to his _Naumachia_ with this wood, and it seems to excel for

beams, doors, windows, and masts of ships, resists the worm: Being

driven into the ground, it is almost petrified, and will support an

incredible weight; which (and for its property of long resisting fire)

makes Vitruvius wish, they had greater plenty of it at Rome to make

goists of, where the Forum of Augustus was (it seems) built of it, and

divers bridges by Tiberius; for that being attempted with fire, it is

long in taking hold, growing only black without; and the timber of it is

so exceedingly transparent, that cabanes being made of the thin boards,

when in the dark night they have lighted candles in them, people, who

are at a distance without doors, would imagine the whole room to be on

fire, which is pretty odd, considering there is no material so (as they

pretend) unapt to kindle. The _larix_ bears polishing excellently well,

and the turners abroad much desire it: Vitruvius says ’tis so ponderous,

that it will sink in the water: It also makes everlasting spouts,

pent-houses, and featheridge, which needs neither pitch or painting to

preserve them; and so excellent pales, posts, rails, pedaments and

props for vines, &c. to which add the palats on which our painters

separate and blend their colours, and were (till the use of canvas and

bed-tike came) the tables on which the great Raphael, and most famous

artists of the last age, eterniz’d their skill.

FOOTNOTES:

{227:1} De causis, l. 1. cap. 5.

{229:1}

Et comitem quercum pinus amica trahit.

{239:1}

......dant utile lignum

Navigiis pinus.......

_Georg. 2._

{239:2} _Macrob. Sat._ 56. cap. 9.

{240:1}

.......... Sectaque intexunt abiete costas.

_Æn. 2._

{242:1}

............ Cujus apertum

Adversi longâ transverberat abiete pectus.

Æn. 11.

{243:1} Where the LXX calls it ἀπελέκητα, _non dedolata_; others

_ligna undulata_. See _Ezek._ 27. 5, 6.

{245:1} See Plin. _Nat. Hist._ lib. 16. cap. 11. or rather Theophrastus

_Hist._ lib. 9. cap. 2, 3. & lib. 14. cap. 20. lib. 23. c. 1. lib. 24.

c. 6.

CHAPTER IV.

_Of the Cedar, Juniper, Cypress, Savine, Thuya &c._

1. But now after all the beautiful and stately trees, clad in perpetual

verdure,

_Quid tibi odorato referam sudantia ligno?_

Should I forget the cedar? which grows in all extreams; in the moist

Barbadoes, the hot Bermudas, (I speak of those trees so denominated) the

cold New England, even where the snows lie, as I am told, almost half

the Year; for so it does on the mountains of Libanus, from whence I have

received cones and seeds of those few remaining trees: why then should

they not thrive in old England, I know not, save for want of industry

and trial.

They grow in the bogs of America, and in the mountains of Asia; so as

there is, it seems, no place or clime which affrights it; and I have

frequently rais’d them from their seeds and berries, of which we have

the very best in the world from the Summer-Islands, though now almost

exhausted by the unaccountable negligence of the planters; as are

likewise those of M. Libanus, by the wandring and barbarous Arabs. The

cedars we have from Jamaica, are a spurious sort and of so porous a

contexture, that wine will sink into it: On the contrary, that of

Carolina so firm and close, that barrels, and other vessels, preserve

the strongest spirits in vigour: The New England cedar is a lofty

grower, and prospers into excellent timber, which being sawn into

planks, make delicate floors: They shingle their houses also with it,

and generally employ it in all their buildings: Why have we no more of

it brought us, to raise, plant, and convert to the same uses? There is

the _oxycedrus_ of Lycia, which the architect Vitruvius describes, to

have its leaf like cypress; but the right Phœnician resembles more the

juniper, bearing a cone not so pointed as the other, as we shall come to

shew.

After these, I shall not here descend to the inferior kinds, which some

call dwarfs, and common juniper-like shrubs, fitter to head the borders

of coronary gardners, and to be shorn. There is yet another of the

North-America, lighter than cork it self, of a fragrant scent, which is

its only virtue. In short,

After all these exotics brought from our plantations, answering to the

name of cedar, I should esteem that of the Vermuda, little inferior, if

not superior, to the noblest Libanon, and next, that of Carolina for its

many uses, and lasting.

Having spoken of their several species, we come now to the culture, best

rais’d from the seeds, since it would be difficult to receive any store

from abroad: To begin with that of M. Libanus; Those which seem of the

greatest antiquity, are indeed majestical, extending the boughs and

branches, with their cones _sursum spectantia_, as by most we are told;

though a late{255:1} traveller found otherwise, and depending, like

other coniferous trees; the sturdy arms, though in smaller sprigs, grow

in time so weighty, as often to bend the very stem, and main shaft,

whilst that which is most remarkable, is the structure of the cones and

seeds receptacles, tack’d and rang’d between the branch-leaves, in such

order, as nothing appears more curious and artificial, and at a little

distance, exceedingly beautiful: These cones have the bases rounder,

shorter, or rather thicker, and with blunter points, the whole

circum-zon’d, as it were, with pretty broad thick scales, which adhere

together in exact series to the very top and summit, where they are

somewhat smaller; but the entire lorication smoother couch’d than those

of the fir-kind: Within these repositories under the scales, nestle the

small nutting seeds, or rather kernels, of a pear-shape, though somewhat

bigger; which how nourish’d and furnish’d from the central style, with

their other integuments, is admirably describ’d by Mr. Ray, as that of

the stalk of the clogs, thicker and longer, and so firmly knit to them,

that it requires considerable force to part them from the branch,

without splitting the arm it self. We have said nothing concerning the

leaf of this tree, which much resembles those of the _larix_, but

somewhat longer and closer set, erect and perpetually green, which those

of the larch are not; but hanging down, drop-off, and desert the tree in

Winter.

The seeds drop out of the cones as other fir, pine-kernels and nuts do,

when the air, sun, or moisture open and unglue the scales, which

naturally it else does not in those of the cedar till the second year;

but which after all the preparations of burying in holes made in the

earth and sand (in which they are apter to rot) may more safely be done,

by exposing the clogs discreetly to the sun, or before the soft and

gentle fire, or I think, best of all, by soaking them in warm-water: The

cones (thus discharged) the gaping seeds, together with the rest of the

skeleton, adhere a long while to the branches, which not seldom hang on

above two years; as we likewise find in those of other resinous trees,

though falling sooner.

The _lachrymæ_, gum, and other transudations, serving more for unguents

and the chyrurgeon’s box, than for other medicaments, in which we find

Pliny has little faith: But that which is more remarkable, is the virtue

of the famous timber of this noble tree, being proof against all

putrefaction of human and other bodies, above all other ingredients and

compositions of embalmers; and that by a pretty contradiction, giving

life as it were to the dead, and destroying the worms which are living;

and as it does where any goods are kept in chests and presses of the

wood, excepting woollen-cloth and furs, which ’tis observ’d they

corrupt. In the mean time, touching the manner of these operations, as

it concerns the preservation of the dead, see more where we speak of

cypress, &c. The effects being ascrib’d to the extream bitterness of the

resinous juices, whilst the odor is most grateful: The worthy Mr. Ray

mentions the powder and sawdust of cedar to be one of the greatest

secrets us’d by our pollinctors and mountebanks, who pretend to this

embalming mystery; and indeed, that the dust and very chips are exitial

to moths and worms, daily experience shews us; tho’ none in mine, than

the dry’d leaves and stalks of _Marum-Syriacum_, familiarly planted in

our gardens: What therefore the late traveller Dampier speaks of cedar,

which he has seen worm-eaten, could neither be that of Libanus or

Bermudas, but haply of Barbados, Jamaica, or some other species: note,

that the cedar is of so dry a nature, that it does not well endure to be

fastened with nails, from which it usually shrinks, and therefore pins

of the same wood are better. Whatever other property this noble tree is

deservedly famous for, it is said to yield an oyl, which above all

other, best preserves the monuments of the learned, books and writings;

whence _cedro dignus_ became one of the highest eulogies: But whether

that of the ingenius poet,

_Notandus minio, nec cedro charta notatur,_

refers not to the colour rather, which was usually red, and perhaps

temper’d with this bitter oyl (as some conjecture) let our antiquaries

determine: The horns and knobs at the ends of the rolling-staves, on

which those sheets of parchment, &c. (before the invention of printing,

and compacted covers now in use) as at present our maps and geographical

charts (peeping out a little beyond the volume) were likely colour’d

with this rutilant mixture.

Touching the diüternity of this material, ’tis recorded, that in the

temple of Apollo Utica, there was found timber of near two thousand

years old; and at Sagunti in Spain, a beam in a certain oratory

consecrated to Diana, which has been brought to Zant, two centuries

before the destruction of Troy: That great Sesostris King of Egypt had

built a vessel of cedar of 280 cubits, all over gilded without and

within: And the Goddess in the famous Ephesine temple, was said to be

of this material also, as was most of the timber-work of that glorious

structure: Though as to the idol τοῦ Διοπετοῦς mention’d in the Acts,

(when the mob rose up against the apostle) some will have to be of

ebony, others of a vine-tree, the most unlikely of all the rest fit for

the carver. The _sittim_ mention’d in Holy Writ, is thought to have been

a kind of cedar of which most precious utensils were formed.

As to the magnitude of cedar-trees: We read of divers whose bodies eight

or nine persons could not embrace, (as we shall shew hereafter) not here

to let pass what Josephus relates Solomon planted in Judea, who

doubtless try’d many experiments of this nature, none being more kingly

than of planting for posterity: I do not speak of those growing on the

mountains of Libanon, in the northern and colder tracts of Syria; or

what store those forests of them then afforded: But, as we are inform’d

by that curious traveller{258:1} Ranwolsius, (since confirm’d also by

the _virtuoso_, Monconys) there were not remaining above twenty five of

those stately trees, and since they were there, but sixteen of that

small number, as the ingenious Mr. Mandevill reports in his journey from

Aleppo to Jerusalem: There was yet, he says, abundance of young trees,

and a single old one of prodigious size, twelve yards and six inches in

the girth; I suppose the same describ’d by the late traveller Bruyn, who

speaking of the shadow of this umbragious tree, alludes to that of

Hosea, Cap. XIV. Ver. 5. which ’tis not improbable might be one of those

yet remaining, where that heroick prince employ’d fourscore thousand

hewers at work, for the materials of one only temple, and the palace he

built in the city; a pregnant instance what time, negligence and war

will bring to ruin. But to return to what is said of their present

number, Le Bruyn (whom just now we mention’d) makes them 35 or 36, for

he could not exactly tell, and pretends (like our Stonedge on Salisbury

Plain) none could ever yet agree of their number.

In short, upon reflection of what we have hitherto concerning the

universal waste and destruction of timber trees, (where due regard is

not taken to propagate and supply them) whole countries have suffer’d,

as well as particular provinces: Thus the Apennines are stripp’d of

their goodly pine and fir-trees (which formerly the naturalist commends

those mountains for) to that degree, as to render not only the city of

Florence, but Rome her self so expos’d to the nipping Tramontan’s (for

so they call the northern winds) that almost nothing which is rare and

curious, will thrive without hyemation and art; so as even thro’ the

most of those parts of Italy, on this side the Kingdom of Naples,

flank’d by the Alpestral Hills, (clad as they perpetually are with snow)

they are fain to house, and retire their orange, citron, and other

delicate and tender plants, as we do in England. There remains yet one

mountain among the Appennines, cover’d and crown’d with cypress; whereof

some are of considerable stature: Nor is all this indeed so great a

wonder, if we find the entire species of some trees totally lost in

countries, as if there never had been any such planted or growing in

them: Be this applied to fir and pine, and several other trees, for want

of culture, several accidents in the soil, air, &c. which we daily find

produces strange alterations in our woods; the beech almost constantly

succeeding the oak, to our great disadvantage; whilst we neglect new

seminations. Herodotus speaking of the palms, (plentifully growing about

Delos) says the whole species was utterly lost: More I might add on this

subject; but having perhaps been too long on these remarks, and long

enough on cold M. Libanus, I pass to,

1. Juniper; let it not seem unduly plac’d, if after such gyants, we

bring that humble shrub (such as abound with us being so reckon’d) to

claim affinity to the tallest cedar; since were not ours continually

cropp’d, but maintain’d in single stems, we might perhaps see some of

them rise to competent trees; fit for many curious works, tables,

cabinets, coffers, inlaying, floors, carvings, &c. we have of some of

these trees so large, as to have made beams and rafters for a certain

temple in Spain, dedicated to Diana; nor need we question their being

fit for other buildings; celebrated for its emulating the cedar, tho’

not in stature, yet in its lastingness: And such, I think, the learned

Dr. Sloane mentions growing in Jamaica, little inferior to the Vermudas.

2. Of juniper, we have three or four sorts, male, female, dwarf; whereof

one is much taller, and more fit for improvement. The wood is yellow,

and being cut in March, sweet as cedar, whereof it is accounted a

spurious kind; all of them difficult to remove with success; nor

prosper, they being shaded at all, or over-drip’d: The Swedish juniper

(now so frequent in our new modish gardens, and shorn into pyramids) is

but a taller and somewhat brighter sort of the vulgar.

3. I have rais’d them abundantly of their seeds (neither watering, nor

dunging the soil) which in two months will peep, and being governed like

the cypress, apt for all the employments of that beautiful tree: To

make it grow tall, prune, and cleanse it to the very stem; the male

best. The discreet loosening of the earth about the roots also, makes it

strangely to prevent your expectations, by suddenly spreading into a

bush fit for a thousand pretty employments; for coming to be much unlike

that which grows wild, and is subject to the treading and cropping of

cattle, &c. it may be form’d into most beautiful and useful hedges: My

late brother having formerly cut out of one only tree, an arbour capable

for three to sit in, it was at my last measuring seven foot square, and

eleven in height; and would certainly have been of a much greater

altitude, and farther spreading, had it not continually been kept shorn:

But what is most considerable, is, the little time since it was planted,

being then hardly ten years, and then it was brought out of the common a

slender bush, of about two foot high: But I have experimented a

proportionable improvement in my own garden, where I do mingle them with

cypress, and they would perfectly become their stations, where they

might enjoy the sun, and may very properly be set where cypress does not

so well thrive; namely, in such gardens and courts as are open to the

eddy-winds, which indeed a little discolours our junipers when they blow

easterly towards the Spring, but they constantly recover again; and

besides, the shrub is tonsile, and may be shorn into any form. I wonder

Virgil should condemn its shadow. _Juniperi gravis umbra_..... I suspect

him mis-reported.

In the mean time, botanists are not fully agreed to what species many

noble and stately trees, passing under the names of cedar, are to be

reckon’d; and therefore (for I cannot but mention those of the Vermuda

again in this place) being so beautiful, tall, thick-set with

evergreen-leaves, like the juniper, with berries indeed much larger, and

may also be propagated by layers: Affording a timber close, ruddy for

the most part; easy to work, and yielding excellent flooring, fit for

wainscot, and all curious cabinet-works; keeping its agreeable odor and

fragrancy longer than the rest: There is also made a pleasant and

wholsome drink of the seeds, as they do of our common juniper; of which

hereafter. Nearest the Bermuda juniper, comes the Virginia, both yet

exceeded by that of Carolina, for the perfections already mention’d,

speaking of cedar, not forgetting the _Oxy-Cedrus_, which is reputed a

sort of juniper: The berries so abounding on our uncultivated bushes,

and barren heaths, always pregnant, annually ripen, tho’ not all at a

time; some sticking longer, so as there will be black, green, and gray,

succeeding one another.

4. And these afford (besides a tolerable pepper) one of the most

universal remedies in the world, to our crazy forester: the berries

swallow’d only, instantly appease the wind-collic, and in decoction most

soveraign against an inveterate cough: They are of rare effect, being

steeped in beer; and in some northern countries, they use a decoction of

the berries, as we do coffee and tea. The water is a most singular

specifique against the gravel in the reins; but all is comprehended in

the virtue of the theriacle, or electuary, which I have often made for

my poor neighbours, and may well be term’d the forester’s _panacea_

against the stone, rheum, pthysic, dropsie, jaundies, inward

imposthumes; nay, palsie, gout, and plague it self, taken like

Venice-treacle. Of the extracted oyl (with that of nuts) is made an

excellent good varnish for pictures, wood-work, and to preserve polish’d

iron from the rust. The gum is good to rub on parchment or paper, to

make it bear ink, and the coals, which are made of the wood, endure the

longest of any; so as live embers have been found after a year’s being

cover’d in the ashes: See St. Hierom _ad Fabiolam_, upon that

expression, _Psal._ 120. v. 4. If it arrive to full growth, spits and

spoons, imparting a grateful relish, and very wholesome, where they are

us’d, are made of this wood, being well dried and season’d. And the very

chips render a wholesome perfume within doors, as well as the dusty

blossoms in Spring without, and excellent within to correct the air, and

expel infection; for which purpose the wood should be cut about May, and

the rasures well dried.

5. And since we now mention pepper, it is by the most prudent and

princely care of his late Majesty, Char. II. that I am assur’d of a late

solemn Act of Council, enjoyning the preserving of that incomparable

spice, which comes to us from Jamaica under that denomination; though in

truth it be a mixture of so many aromatics in one, that it might as well

have been call’d cinamon, nutmeg or mace, and all-spice, to every of

which it seems something allied: And that there is not only prohibited

the destruction of these trees (for it seems some prodigals us’d to cut

them down, for the more easie gathering) but order taken likewise for

their propagation, and that assays, and samples be from time to time

sent over, what other fruits, trees, gums, and vegetables may there be

found, and which I prognostick will at last also incite the planters

there, to think of procuring cinamon, cloves, and nutmeg-trees indeed,

from the East-Indies, and what other useful curiosities do not approach

our northern Bear, (and that are yet incicurabiles amongst us) and to

plant them in Jamaica, and other of the Western Islands, as a more safe

and frugal expedient to humble our emulous neighbours; since there is

nothing in their situation, or defect of nature’s benignity, which ought

in the least to discourage us: And what if some of the trees of those

countries (especially such as aspire to be timber, and may be of

improvement amongst us) were more frequently brought to us likewise here

in England; since we daily find how many rare exotics, and strangers,

with little care, become endenizon’d, and so contented to live amongst

us, as may be seen in the _platanus_, Constantinople-chesnut, the

greater glandiferous _ilex_, cork, _nux vesicaria_ (which is an hard

wood, fit for the turner, &c.) the _styrax_, bead-tree, the famous

_lotus_, Virginian acacia, _guaiacum Patavinum_, _paliurus_, cypress,

pines, fir, and sundry others, which grow already in our gardens,

expos’d to the weather; and so doubtless would many more: So judiciously

observ’d is that of the learned author of the history of the Royal

Society, part. 3. sect. 28,

‘That whatever attempts of this nature have succeeded, they have

redounded to the great advantage of the undertakers. The orange of

China being of late brought into Portugal, has drawn a great

revenue every year from London alone. The vine of the Rhene, taking

root in the Canaries, has produc’d a far more delicious juice, and

has made the rocks, and sun-burnt ashes of those islands, one of

the richest spots of ground in the world. And I will also instance

in that which is now in a good forwardness: Virginia has already

given silk for the cloathing of our King; and it may happen

hereafter, to give cloaths to a great part of Europe, and a vast

treasure to our Kings: If the silk-worms shall thrive there, (of

which there seems to be no doubt) the profit will be inexpressible.

We may guess at it, by considering what numbers of caravans, and

how many great cities in Persia, are maintain’d by that manufacture

alone, and what mighty customs it yearly brings unto the Sophi’s

revenue.’

Thus he: To which we might add; that not only the China-orange mention’d

by the Doctor, but the whole race of orange-trees, were strangers in

Italy, and unknown at Rome; nor grew they nearer than Persia, whence

first they travell’d into Greece, as Athenaeus tells us. But to return

to that of China, and give some account of its propagation in Europe:

The first was sent for a present to the old Conde Mellor, then Prime

Minister to the King of Portugal: But of that whole case, (they came to

Lisbon in) there was but one only plant, which escap’d the being so

spoil’d and tainted; that with great care it hardly recovered, to be

since become the parent and progenitor of all those flourishing trees of

that name, cultivated by our gardeners, tho’ not without sensibly

degenerating. Receiving this account from the illustrious son of the

Conde (successor in title and favour) upon his being recall’d (then an

exile at our Court, where I had the honour to be known to him) I thought

fit to mention it in this place, for an instance of what the industry we

have recommended, would questionless in less than half an age, produce

of wonders, by introduction, if not of quite different, yet of better

kinds, and such variety for pulchritude and sweetness; that when by some

princely example, our late pride, effeminacy, and luxury, (which has to

our vast charges, excluded all the ornaments of timber, &c. to give

place to hangings, embroideries, and foreign leather) shall be put out

of countenance, we may hope to see a new face of things, for the

encouragement of planters (the more immediate work of God’s hands) and

the natural, wholesome, and ancient use of timber, for the more lasting

occasions, and furniture of our dwellings: And though I do not speak all

this for the sake of joyn’d-stools, benches, cup-boards, massy tables,

and gigantic bed-steads, (the hospitable utensils of our fore-fathers)

yet I would be glad to encourage the carpenter, and the joyner, and

rejoice to see, that their work and skill do daily improve; and that by

the example and application of his Majesty’s Universities, and Royal

Society, the restoration and improvement of shipping, mathematical, and

mechanical arts, the use of timber grows daily in more reputation. And

it were well if great persons might only be indulg’d to inrich, and

adorn their palaces with tapestry, damask, velvet, and Persian

furniture; whilst by some wholesome sumptuary laws, the universal excess

of those costly and luxurious moveables, were prohibited meaner men, for

divers politic considerations and reasons, which it were easie to

produce; but by a less influence than severer laws, it will be very

difficult, if not altogether impossible, to recover our selves from a

softness and vanity, which will in time not only effeminate, but undo

the nation.

6. _Cupressus_, the cypress-tree is either the Sative, or garden-tree,

the most pyramidal and beautiful; or that which is call’d the male,

(though somewhat preposterously) which bears the small cones, but is of

a more extravagant shape: Should we reason only from our common

experience, even the cypress-tree was, but within a few years past,

reputed so tender, and nice a plant, that it was cultivated with the

greatest care, and to be found only amongst the curious; whereas we see

it now, in every garden, rising to as goodly a bulk and stature, as most

which you shall find even in Italy it self; for such I remember to have

once seen in his late Majesty’s gardens at Theobalds, before that

princely seat was demolish’d. I say, if we did argue from this topic,

methinks it should rather encourage our country-men to add yet to their

plantations, other foreign and useful trees, and not in the least deter

them, because many of them are not as yet become endenizon’d amongst us:

But of this I have said enough, and yet cannot but still repeat it.

7. We may read that the peach was at first accounted so tender, and

delicate a tree, as that it was believ’d to thrive only in Persia; and

even in the days of Galen, it grew no nearer than Egypt, of all the

Roman provinces, but was not seen in the city, till about thirty years

before Pliny’s time; whereas, there is now hardly a more common, and

universal in Europe: Thus likewise, the _Avellana_ from Pontus in Asia;

thence into Greece, and so Italy, to the city of Abellino in Campania.

_Una tantùm litera immutata, Avellina dici, quæ prius Abellina._

I might affirm the same of our Damasco plum, quince, medlar, fig, and

most ordinary pears, as well as of several other peregrine trees,

fruit-bearers, and others; for even the very damask-rose it self, (as my

Lord Bacon tells us, Cent. 2. exp. 659.) is little more than an hundred

years old in England: Methinks this should be of wonderful incitement.

It was 680 years after the foundation of Rome, e’er Italy had tasted a

cherry of their own, which being then brought thither{268:1} out of

Pontus (as the above-mention’d filberts were) did after 120 years,

travel _ad ultimos Britannos_.

8. We had our first myrtils out of Greece, and cypress from Crete, which

was yet a meer stranger in Italy, as Pliny reports, and most difficult

to be raised; which made Cato to write more concerning the culture of

it, than of any other tree: Notwithstanding, we have in this country of

ours, no less than three sorts, which are all of them easily propagated,

and prosper very well, if they are rightly ordered; and therefore I

shall not omit to disclose one secret, as well to confute a popular

error, as for the instruction of our gardeners.

9. The tradition is, that the cypress (being a symbol of mortality,

_ferales & invisas_, they should say of the contrary) is never to be

cut, for fear of killing it. This makes them to impale, and wind them

about, like so many Ægyptian mummies; by which means, the inward parts

of the tree being heated, for want of air and refreshment, it never

arrives to any perfection, but is exceedingly troublesome, and

chargeable to maintain; whereas indeed, there is not a more tonsile and

governable plant in nature; for the cypress may be cut to the very

roots, and yet spring afresh, as it does constantly in Candy, if not

yielding suckers (as Bellonius affirms,) I rather think produced by the

seeds, which the mother-trees shed at the motion of the stem in the

felling: And this we find was the husbandry in the Isle of Ænaria,

where they us’d to fell it for copp’ce: For the cypress being rais’d

from the nursery of seeds sown in September (or rather March,) and

within two years after transplanted, should at two years standing more,

have the master-stem of the middle shaft cut off some hand-breadth below

the summit; the sides, and smaller sprigs shorn into a conique, or

pyramidal form, and so kept clipt from April to September, as oft as

there is occasion; and by this regiment, they will grow furnish’d to the

foot, and become the most beautiful trees in the world, without binding

or stake; still remembring to abate the middle stem, and to bring up the

collateral branches in its stead, to what altitude you please; but when

I speak of short’ning the middle shoot, I do not intend the dwarfing of

it, and therefore it must be done discreetly, so as it may not

over-hastily advance, till the foot thereof be perfectly furnished: But

there is likewise another, no less commendable expedient, to dress this

tree with all the former advantages; if sparing the shaft altogether,

you diligently cut away all the forked branches, reserving only such as

radiate directly from the body, which being shorn, and clipt in due

season, will render the tree very beautiful; and though more subject to

obey the shaking winds, yet the natural spring of it, does immediately

redress it, without the least discomposure; and this is a secret worth

the learning of gardeners, who subject themselves to the trouble of

stakes and binding, which is very inconvenient. Thus likewise may you

form them into hedges, topiary works, limits and boundary, _metas

imitata cupressus_; or by sowing the seeds in a shallow furrow, and

plucking up the supernumeraries, where they come too close and thick:

For in this work, it will suffice to leave them within a foot of each

other; and when they are risen about a yard in height, (which may be to

the half of your palisado) cut off their tops, as you are taught, and

keep the sides clipp’d, that they ascend but by degrees, and thicken at

the bottom as they climb. Thus, they will present you (in half a dozen

or eight years) with incomparable hedges; because they are perpetually

green, able to resist the winds better than most which I know, the holly

only excepted, which indeed has no peer.

10. For, when I say winds, I mean their fiercest gusts, not their cold:

For though it be said, _brumâque illæsa cupressus_, and that indeed no

frost impeaches them (for they grow even on the snowy tops of Ida,) yet

our cruel eastern winds do sometimes mortally invade them which have

been late clipp’d, seldom the untouch’d or that were dressed in the

Spring only: The effects of March and April winds (in the Year 1663, and

1665) accompanied with cruel frosts, and cold blasts, for the space of

more than two months, night and day, did not amongst near a thousand

cypresses (growing in my garden) kill above three or four, which for

being very late cut to the quick (that is, the latter end of October)

were raw of their wounds, took cold, and gangreen’d; some few others

which were a little smitten towards the tops, might have escaped all

their blemishes, had my gardener capp’d them but with a wisp of hay or

straw, as in my absence I commanded. As for the frost of those winters

(than which I believe there was never known a more cruel and deadly

piercing since England had a name) it did not touch a cypress of mine,

till it join’d forces with that destructive wind: Therefore for

caution, clip not your cypresses late in Autumn, and cloath them (if

young) against these winds; for the frosts they only discolour them, but

seldom, or never hurt them, as by long experience I have found; nor

altogether despair of the resurrection of a cypress, subverted by the

wind; for some have redress’d themselves; and one (as Ziphilinus

mentions) that rose the very next day; which happening about the reign

of the emperor Vespasian, was esteem’d an happy omen: But of such

accidents, more hereafter.

11. If you affect to see your cypress in standard, and grow wild, (which

may in time come to be of a large substance, fit for the most immortal

of timber, and indeed are the least obnoxious to the rigours of our

Winters, provided you never clip or disbranch them) plant of the reputed

male-sort; it is a tree which will prosper wonderfully; and where the

ground is hot and gravelly, though (as we said) he be nothing so

beautiful; and it is of this, that the Venetians make their greatest

profit.

12. I have already shew’d how this tree is to be rais’d from the seed;

but there was another method amongst the Ancients, who (as I told you)

were wont to make great plantations of them for their timber; I have

practis’d it my self, and therefore describe it.

13. If you receive your seed in the roundish small nuts, which use to be

gather’d thrice a year, (but seldom ripening with us) expose them to the

sun till they gape, or near a gentle fire, or put them in warm water,

(as was directed in those of cedar) by which means the seeds will be

easily shaken out; for if you have them open before, they do not yield

you half their crop: About the beginning of April (or before, if the

weather be showery) prepare an even bed, which being made of fine

earth, clap down with your spade, as gardeners do for purselain seed (of

old they roll’d it with some stone, or cylinder); upon this strew your

seeds pretty thick; then sift over them some more mould, somewhat better

than half an inch in height: Keep them duly watered after sunset, unless

the season do it for you; and after one year’s growth, (for they will be

an inch high in little more than two months) you may transplant them

where you please: If in the nursery, set them at a foot or 18 inches

distance in even lines, kept watered and moist, ’till they are well

rooted, and fit to be remov’d. In watering them, I give you this caution

(which may also serve you for most tender and delicate seeds) that you

bedew them rather with a broom, or spergitory, than hazard the beating

them out with the common watering-pot; and when they are well come up,

be but sparing of water: Be sure likewise that you cleanse them when the

weeds are very young and tender, lest instead of purging, you quite

eradicate your cypress: We have spoken of watering, and indeed whilst

young, if well follow’d, they will make a prodigious advance. When that

long and incomparable walk of cypress at Frascati near Rome, was first

planted, they drew a small stream (and indeed _irrigare_ is properly

thus, _aquam inducere riguis_ (_i. e._) in small gutters and rills) by

the foot of it, (as the water there is in abundance tractable) and made

it (as I was credibly inform’d) arrive to seven or eight foot height in

one year; (which does not agree with the epithet, _lenta cupressus_);

but with us, we may not be too prodigal; since, being once well taken,

they thrive best in our sandy, light and warmest grounds, whence Cardan

says, _juxta aquas arescit_; meaning in low and moorish places, stiff

and cold earth, &c. where they never thrive.

There is also a Virginian cypress, of an enormous height, beautiful and

very spreading, the branches and leaves large and regular, with the

clogs resembling the cypress; and though the timber be somewhat course

and cross-grain’d, ’tis when polish’d, very agreeable; as I can shew in

a very large table, made out of the planks of a spurr only; and had

experience of its lastingness, tho’ expos’d both to the air and weather.

14. What the uses of this timber are, for chests, and other utensils,

harps, and divers other musical instruments (it being a very sonorous

wood, and therefore employ’d for organ-pipes, as heretofore for

supporters of vines, poles, rails, and planks, (resisting the worm,

moth, and all putrefaction to eternity) the Venetians sufficiently

understood; who did every twenty year, and oftner (the Romans every

thirteen) make a considerable revenue of it out of Candy: And certainly,

a very gainful commodity it was, when the fell of a _cupressetum_, was

heretofore reputed a good daughters portion, and the plantation it self

call’d _dos filiæ_. But there was in Candy a vast wood of these trees,

belonging to the Republique, by malice, or accident (or perhaps by solar

heat, as were many woods 74 years after, even here in England) set on

fire, which _anno_ 1400, burning for seven years continually, before it

could be quite extinguish’d, fed so long a space by the unctuous nature

of the timber, of which there were to be seen at Venice planks of above

four foot in breadth; and formerly the valves of St. Peter’s church at

Rome, were fram’d of this material, which lasted from the great

Constantine, to Pope Eugenius the Fourth’s time, eleven hundred years;

and then were found as fresh, and entire as if they had been new: But

this Pope would needs change them for gates of brass, which were cast by

the famous Antonio Philarete; not in my opinion so venerable, as those

of cypress. It was in coffins of this material, that Thucydides tells

us, the Athenians us’d to bury their heroes, and the mummy-chests

brought with those condited bodies out of Egypt, are many of them of

this material, which ’tis probable may have lain in those dry, and sandy

_crypta_, many thousand years.

15. The timber of this wood was of infinite esteem with the Ancients:

That lasting bridge built over the Euphrates by Semiramis, was made of

this material; and it is reported, Plato chose it to write his laws in,

before brass it self, for the diuturnity of the matter: It is certain,

that it never rifts or cleaves, but with great violence; and the

bitterness of its juice, preserves it from all worms and putrifaction.

To this day those of Crete and Malta make use of it for their buildings;

because they have it in plenty, and there is nothing out-lasts it, or

can be more beautiful, especially, than the root of the wilder sort,

incomparable for its crisped undulations. Divers learned persons have

conceiv’d the gopher mention’d in Holy Writ, _Gen._ 6. 14. (and of which

the Ark was built) to have been no other than this Κυπάρισσος,

_cupar_, or _cuper_, by the easie mutation of letters; Aben Ezra names

it a light wood apt to swim; so does David Kimchi; which rather seems to

agree with fir or pine, and such as the Greeks call ξύλα τετράγωνα

quadrangular trees, about which criticks have made a deal of stir: But

Isa. Vossius (on the LXX. C. II.) has sufficiently made it out, that

the timber of that denomination was of those sort of trees whose

branches breaking out just opposite to one another at right angles, make

it appear to have been fir, or some sort of wood whose arms grew in a

uniform manner; but surely this is not to be universally taken; since we

find yew, and divers other trees, brittle, heavy, and unapt for

shipping, do often put forth in that order: The same learned author will

have gopher to signifie only pitch, or bitumen, as much as if the text

had said, make an ark of resinous timber. The Chaldee paraphrase

translates it cedar, or as Junius and Tremellius, _cedrelaten_, a

species between fir and cedar: Munster contends for the pine, and divers

able divines endeavour to prove it cypress; and besides, ’tis known,

that in Crete they employ’d it for the same use in the largest

contignations, and did formerly build ships of it: And Epiphanius Hæres,

l. 1. tells us, some reliques of that ark (_circa campos sennaar_)

lasted even to his days, and was judged to have been of cypress. Some

indeed suppose that gopher was the name of a place, _à cupressis_, as

Elon _à quercubus_; and might possibly be that which Strabo calls

_Cupressetum_, near Adiabene in Assyria: But for the reason of its long

lasting, coffins (as noted) for the dead were made of it, and thence it

first became to be _diti sacra_; and the valves, or doors of the

Ephesine temple were likewise of it, as we observ’d but now, were those

of St. Peters at Rome: Works of cypress-wood, _permanent ad

diuturnitatem_, says Vitruvius l. 2. And the poet

.............._perpetuâ nunquam moritura cupresso._

Mart. E. 6. 6.

The medical virtues of this tree are for all affects of the nerves,

astringent and refrigerating, for the hernia, apply’d outwardly, or

taken inwardly, for the dysentary, strangury, &c.

But to resume the disquisition, whether it be truly so proper for

shipping, is controverted; though we also find in Cassiodorus _Var._ l.

5. ep. 16, Theodoric (writing to the _Prætorio-præfectus_) caused store

of it to be provided for that purpose; and Plato (who we told you made

laws, and titles to be engraven in it) nominates it, _inter arbores

ναυπηγοῖς utiles_ l. 4. leg. and so does Diodorus l. 19. And as

travellers observe, there is no other sort of timber more fit for

shipping, {276:1} though others think it too heavy: Aristobulus affirms

that the Assyrians made all their vessels of it; and indeed the Romans

prais’d it, pitch’d with Arabian pitch: And so frequent was this tree

about those parts of Assyria (where the Ark is conjectur’d to have been

built) that those vast Armada’s, which Alexander the Great caus’d to be

equipp’d and set out from Babylon, consisted only of cypress, as we

learn out of Arrian in _Alex._ l. 7. and Strabo l. 16. Plutar. _Sympos._

l. 1, _prob._ 2. Vegetius l. 14. c. 34, &c. Paulus Colomesius (in his

κειμήλια _literaria_ cap. 24.) perstringes the most learned Is.

Vossius, that in his _vindiciae pro LXX. interp._ he affirms cypress not

fit for ships, as being none of the τετράγωνοι: But besides what we

have produced, Fuller, Bochartus, &c. Lilius Gyraldus (_Lib. de navig._

c. 4.) and divers others sufficiently evince it, and that the vessel

built by Trajan was of that material, lasting uncorrupt near 1400 years,

when it was afterwards found in a certain lake; if it were not rather

(as I suspect) that which Æneas Silvius reports to have been discovered

in his time, lying under water in the Numidian Lake, crusted over with

a certain ferruginous mixture of earth and scales, as if it had been of

iron; but (as we have elsewhere noted) it was pronounced to be _larix_,

and not cypress, employ’d by Tiberius: Finally (not to forget even the

very chips of this precious wood, which give that flavour to muscadines,

and other rich wines) I commend it for the improvement of the air, and a

specific for the lungs, as sending forth most sweet, and aromatick

emissions, whenever it is either clipp’d, or handled, and the chips or

cones, being burnt, extinguish moths, and expels the gnats and flies,

&c. not omitting the gum which it yields, not much inferior to the

terebinthine or lentise.

We have often mention’d the virtue of these odoriferous woods, for the

improvement of the air; upon which I take occasion here to add, what I

have (some years since) already{277:1} publish’d, concerning the

melioration of it, in, and about this great and populous city,

accidentally obnoxious to the effects of those nauseous vapours,

exhaling from those many unclean places, and tainting that dismal cloud

of sulphurous (if not arsenical) smoke, which we uncessantly breathe in.

I know the late terrible conflagration, by the care and industry of the

magistrate, in causing so many kennels, sinks, gutters, lay-stalls and

other nuisances (receptacles of a stagnant filth) to be removed, must

needs have exceedingly contributed to the purifying of the air; as I am

persuaded would appear upon a political observation in the bills of

mortality: But what I yet cannot but deplore, is, that, (when that

spacious area, was so long a _rasa tabula_) the church-yards had not

been banish’d to the North-walls of the city, where a grated inclosure

of competent breadth (for a mile in length) might have served for an

universal cœmetery, to all the parishes, distinguish’d by the like

separations, and with ample walks of trees; the walks adorn’d with

monuments, inscriptions and titles apt for contemplation and memory of

the defunct; and that wise, and ancient law of the XII Tables restor’d

and reviv’d: But concerning this, and hortulan buryings upon this and

other weighty reasons, see cap. I. book IV. Happy in the mean time, had

it been for the further purgation of this august metropolis, had they

there, (or did they yet) banish and proscribe those hellish vulcanos,

disgorging from the brew-houses, sope and salt-boilers, chandlers,

hat-makers, glass-houses, forges, lime-kilns, and other trades, using

such quantities of sea-coals, one of whose funnels vomits more smoak

than all the culinary and chamber-fires of a whole parish, as I have

(with no small indignation) observed, at what time they usually put out

their fires, on Saturday evening, and re-kindle on Sunday night, or

Monday morning; perniciously infecting the ambient air, with a black

melancholy canopy, to the detriment of the most valuable moveables and

furniture of the inhabitants, and the whole countrey about it. A bar of

iron shall be more exeded and consum’d with rust in one year in this

city, than in thrice-seven in the countrey: Why might it not therefore

be worth a severe and publick edict, to remove these vulcanos and

infernal houses of smoak to competent distance; some down the river,

others (which require conveniency of fresh-water) up the Thames, among

the streams about Wandsworth, &c? Their commodities and manufactures

brought up to capacious wharfs, on the bank, or London side, to the

increase of a thousand water-men and other labourers, of which we cannot

have too many?

Now to demonstrate that not only the amoval of these unsufferable

nuisances would infinitely clarifie the air, and render it more

wholsome, and to return to my subject of trees and plants; the

reputation they have had for contributing to the health of whole

countries and cities, frequently occur in history: For instance, in the

island of Cyprus, abounding with the trees of that name, and other

resinous plants, curing ulcerated lungs, &c. Sardinia, melancholy and

madness, replanted with true Anticyran hellebore, was famous; whilst

Thusus (especially in Summer) brought almost all the inhabitants to

lunacy and distraction for want of it. And what the effects and benefit

of such plantations have produc’d, is conspicuous in one of the most

celebrated cities of the East, the famous Ispahan, clear’d of the

pestilence, since the surrounding it with that beautiful platan, as I

have already noted. To these add, the bay-tree, for abating all such

infections; of which see many famous instances in cap. vi. to which I

refer. Not that there are no nociferous trees, as well as saniferous,

which by removing the one, and planting other in their places, make

sensible changes for the better. I give instance, when we speak of the

yew; and even that otherwise incomparably useful shrub, the elder.

Upon what therefore has been produc’d of expedients for the melioration

of the air by plantations of proper trees; I cannot but wish, that since

these precious materials may now be had at such tolerable rates (as

certainly they might from Cape-Florida, the Vermuda, or other parts of

the West-Indies); I say, I cannot but suggest that our more wealthy

citizens of London, every day building and embellishing their dwellings,

might be encourag’d to make use of it in their shops, at least for

shelves, counters, chests, tables, and wainscot, &c. the fancerings (as

they term it) and mouldings; since beside the everlastingness of the

wood, enemy to worms, and those other corruption we have named, it would

likewise greatly cure and reform the malignancy and corrosiveness of the

air.

_Sabin_, or, as we call it, savine, not for dignity to be nam’d with the

former; but for its being absolutely the best _Succedaneum_ to cypress,

(which the rigour of our climat is not so benign to): If our gardners

did only increase and cultivate it for the other’s defects, and bring up

nurseries of them for pyramids, and other tonsile and topiary works,

they would oftner use it instead of cypress: As to its other quality, it

has, indeed, an ill report, (as most other things have when not rightly

apply’d,) whilst there is nothing more efficacious for the destruction

of worms in little children, the juice being given in a spoonful of

milk, dulcified with a little sugar, which brings them away in heaps; as

it does in horses and other cattel above all other remedies.

There is another berry-bearing savine in warmer climats, which also

resembles the cypress, commonly taken for the Tarrentine cypress, so

much celebrated by Cato, which grew to noble standards: But that, and

the Melesian, worthy the culture, are rare with us, and indeed is as

well supply’d by the more hardy, as well as the Swedish juniper, and

other shrubs. The sabine is easily propagated by slips and cuttings

sooner than by the seeds, though sometimes found in the small squamous

seed-cases.

_Tamaric_, (growing to a considerable tree) for its aptness to be shorn

and govern’d like the sabine and cypress, may be entertain’d, but not

for its lasting verdure, which forsakes it in Winter, but soon again

restores it. It was of old counted _infelix_, and under malediction, and

therefore used to wreath, and be put on the heads of malefactors: But it

has other excellent properties, in particular sovereign against the

spleen, which as{281:1} Camden tells us was therefore brought first into

England by Grindal Archbishop of Canterbury: They also made cans to

drink, out of this wood.

_Thuya_; by some call’d _arbor vitae_, (brought us from Canada,) is an

hardy green all the Winter, (though a little tarnish’d in very sharp

weather) rais’d to a tree of moderate stature, bearing a ragged leaf,

not unlike the cypress, only somewhat flatter, and not so thick set and

close: It bears small longish clogs and seeds, but takes much better by

layers and slips, as those we have before mentioned, and may be kept

into the same shapes, but most delights in the shade, where the roots

running shallow, the stem needs support: The leaf being bruised between

the fingers, emits a powerful scent not easily conquer’d, seeming to

breathe something of a sanative unguent, and (as I am told) makes one of

the best for the closure of green and fresh wounds: But that those

curious utensils and works of the turners, bowls, boxes, cups, mortars,

pestles, &c. are of this material (as is pretended) and pass under the

name of _lignum vitae_, (or rather of some of the exotic, more close and

ponderous wood) as Brasile, log-wood, &c. is a mistake: Upon recension

therefore of these exotics, I cannot but encourage the more frequent

raising the rest of those _semper-vivents_, especially such as are

fittest for the shrubby parts, and furniture of our groves, mere gardens

of pleasure, which none but the ever-green become. To these we might add

(not for their verdure only) other more rare exotics, _styrax arbor_,

and terebynth, noting by the way, that we have no true turpentine to be

bought in our shops, but what is from the larch; whilst apothecaries

substitute that which extills from the fir-tree, instead of it: All of

them minding me again of the great opportunities and encouragement we

have of every day improving our stores with so many useful trees from

the American plantations; for which I have the suffrage of the

often-cited Mr. Ray, who is certainly a very able judge: Might we not

therefore attempt the more frequent locust, sassafras, &c. and that sort

of elm, or sugar-tree, whose juice yields that sweet _halymus

latifolius_, and several others for encouragement? But

14. I produce not these particulars, and other _amæna vireta_ already

mentioned, as signifying any thing to timber, the main design of this

treatise, (tho’ I read of some myrtils so tall, as to make spear-shafts)

but to exemplifie in what may be farther added to ornament and pleasure,

by a cheap and most agreeable industry.

FOOTNOTES:

{255:1} Le Bruyn.

{258:1} In Itin.

{268:1} _A cerasunte_. Indeed Servius, l. 2. _Geor._ 1. says, it was

earlier in Italy; but hard and wild and usually call’d _corna_, and

sometimes _corno-cerosa_, perhaps the black-cherry.

{276:1} _Hadrian. Junius Animadv._ l. 1. c. 20.

{277:1} _Fumifugium._

{281:1} _Elizab._

CHAPTER V.

_Of the Cork, Ilex, Alaternus, Celastrus, Ligustrum, Philyrea, Myrtil,

Lentiscus, Olive, Granade, Syring, Jasmine and other Exoticks._

We do not exclude this useful tree from those of the glandiferous and

forest; but being inclin’d to gratify the curious, I have been induc’d

to say something farther of such _semper virentia_, as may be made to

sort with those of our own, (especially of the next Chapter.) I begin

with the

1. Cork, [_suber_] of which there are two sorts (and divers more in the

Indies) one of a narrow, or less jagged leaf, and perennial; the other

of a broader, falling in Winter; grows in the coldest parts of Biscay,

in the north of New-England, in the south-West of France, especially the

second species, fittest for our climate; and in all sorts of ground, dry

heaths, stony and rocky mountains, so as the roots will run even above

the earth, where they have little to cover them; all which considered,

methinks we should not despair. We have said where they grow plentifully

in France; but by Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ l. 16. c. 8. it should seem they

were since transplanted thither; for he affirms there were none either

there, or in Italy, in his time: But I exceedingly wonder that Carolus

Stephanus, and Cursius, should write so peremptorily, that there were

none in Italy; where I my self have travell’d through vast woods of them

about Pisa, Aquin, and in divers tracts between Rome, and the kingdom of

Naples, and in France. The Spanish cork is a species of the _enzina_,

differing chiefly in the leaf, which is not so prickly; and in the bark,

which is frequently four or five inches thick: The manner of

decortication thereof is once in two or three years, to strip it in a

dry season; otherwise, the intercutaneous moisture endangers the tree,

and therefore a rainy season is very pernicious; when the bark is off,

they unwarp it before the fire, and press it even, and that with weights

upon the convex part, and so it continues, being cold.

2. The uses of cork is well known amongst us, both at sea and land, for

its resisting both water and air: The fisher-men who deal in nets, and

all who deal with liquors, cannot be without it: Ancient persons prefer

it before leather for the soles of their shooes, being light, dry, and

resisting moisture, whence the Germans name it _Pantoffel-holts_

(slipper-wood) perhaps from the Greek Παντὸς & φέλλος; for I find

it first applied to that purpose by the Grecian ladies, whence they were

call’d light-footed; I know not whether the epithet do still belong to

that sex; but from them it’s likely the Venetian dames took it up for

their monstrous _choppines_; affecting, or usurping an artificial

eminency above men, which nature has denied them. Of one of the sorts of

cork are made pretty cups, and other vessels, esteem’d good to drink out

of for hectical persons: The Egyptians made their coffins of it, which

being lin’d with a resinous composition, preserved their dead incorrupt:

The poor people in Spain, lay broad planks of it by their beds-side, to

tread on (as great persons use Turky and Persian carpets) to defend them

from the floor, and sometimes they line or wainscot the walls, and

inside of their houses built of stone, with this bark, which renders

them very warm, and corrects the moisture of the air: Also they employ

it for bee-hives, and to double the insides of their _contemplores_, and

leather-cases, wherein they put flasquéra’s with snow to refrigerate

their wine. This tree has beneath the _cortex_ or cork, two other coats,

or _libri_, of which one is reddish, which they strip from the hole when

’tis fell’d only; and this bears good price with the tanner; The rest of

the wood is very good firing, and applicable to many other uses of

building, palisade-work, &c. The ashes drunk, stop the bloody-flux.

3. _Ilex_, _major glandifera_, or great scarlet-oak of several species,

and various in the shape of their leaf, pointed rounder, longer, &c. (a

devoted tree of old, and therefore _incaedua_) thrives manifestly with

us; witness His Majesty’s privy-garden at White-hall, where once

flourish’d a goodly tree, of more than fourscore years growth, and there

was lately a sickly imp of it remaining: And now very many rais’d by me,

have thriv’d wonderfully, braving the most severe Winters, planted

either in standards or hedges, which they most beautifully become. The

only difficulty is in their being dextrously removed out of the nursery,

with the mould adhering to the roots; otherwise apt to miscarry; and

therefore best trusting to the acorn for a goodly standard, and that may

be removed without prejudice, tryals should be made by graffing the

_ilex_ in the oak-stock, taken out of our woods, or better, grown from

the acorn to the bigness of one’s little finger.

4. By what I have touch’d in the chapter of the elms, concerning the

peregrination of that tree into Spain, (where even in Pliny’s time there

were none, and where now they are in great abundance) why should we not

more generally endeavour to propagate the _ilex_ amongst us; I mean,

that which the Spaniards call the _enzina_, and of which they have such

woods, and profitable plantations? They are an hardy sort of tree, and

familiarly rais’d from the acorn, if we could have them sound, and well

put up in earth or sand, as I have found by experience.

5. The wood of these _ilex’s_ is serviceable for many uses, as stocks of

tools, mallet-heads, mall-balls, chairs, axletrees, wedges, beetles,

pins, and above all, for palisadoes us’d in fortifications. Besides, it

affords so good fuel, that it supplies all Spain almost with the best,

and most lasting of charcoals, in vast abundance. Of the first kind is

made the painter’s lac, extracted from the berries; to speak nothing of

that noble confection _alkermes_, and that noble scarlet-die the learned

Mr. Ray gives us the process of at large, in his chapter of the ilexes;

where also of their medicinal uses: To this add that most accurate

description of this tree, and the _vermicula_; see Quinqueranus, L. 2.

_de laud. provid._ fol. 48. naturally abounding about Alos. The acorns

of the _coccigera_, or dwarf-oak, yield excellent nourishment for

rustics, sweet, and little if at all inferior to the chesnut; and this,

and not the _fagus_, was doubtless the true _esculus_ of the Ancients,

the food of the Golden Age. The wood of the _enzina_ when old, is

curiously chambletted, and embroider’d with natural vermiculations, as

if it were painted. Note, that the _kermes_ tree does not always produce

the _coccum_, but near the sea, and where it is very hot; nor indeed

when once it comes to bear acorns; and therefore the people do often

burn down the old trees, that they may put forth fresh branches, upon

which they find them: This, (as well as the oak, cork, beech, and

_corylus_) is numbred amongst the _felices_, and lucky-trees: But for

what reason, the _alaternus_ (which I am next speaking of) together with

the _agrifolium_ [holly] pines, _salix_, &c. should be excommunicated,

as _infelices_, I know not, unless for their being dedicated to the

Infernal Deities; of which Macrob. _Sat. lib._ 12. cap. 16. In the mean

time, take this for a general rule; that those were call’d _infelices_

only, which bare no fruit; for so Livy, lib. 5. _nulla felix arbor,

nihil frugiferum in agro relictum_. Whence that of Phædrus, l. 3. _Fab._

upon Jupiter’s _esculus_:

_O nata, merito sapiens dicere omnibus

Nisi utile est quod facimus, stulta est gloria,_

reciting the ancient trees sacred to the deity, the most desirable being

those that were fruitful, and for use.

6. The _alaternus_, which we have lately receiv’d from the hottest parts

of Languedoc, (and that is equal with the heat of almost any country in

Europe) thrives with us in England, as if it were an indigine and

natural; yet sometimes yielding to a severe Winter, follow’d with a

tedious eastern wind in the Spring, of all the most hostile and cruel

enemies of our climate; and therefore to be artificially and timely

provided against with shelter.

7. I have had the honour to be the first who brought it into use and

reputation in the kingdom, for the most beautiful and useful of hedges

and verdure in the world (the swiftness of the growth consider’d) and

propagated it from Cornwall, even to Cumberland: The seed grows ripe

with us in August; and the honey-breathing blossoms afford an early and

marvellous relief to the bees.

8. The _celastrus_ (of the same class) _ligustrum_ and privits, so

flexible and accommodate for topiary-works, and so well known, I shall

need say no more of.

9. The _philyrea_, (of which there are five or six sorts, and some

variegated) are sufficiently hardy, (especially the _serratifole_) which

makes me wonder to find the _angustifolia_ planted in cases, and so

charily set into the stoves, amongst the oranges and lemmons; when by

long experience, I have found it equalling our holley, in suffering the

extreamest rigours of our cruel frosts and winds, which is doubtless (of

all our English trees) the most insensible and stout.

10. They are (both _alaternus_, and this) raised of the seeds, (though

those of the _philyrea_ will be long under ground) and being

transplanted for _espalier_ hedges, or standards, are to be governed by

the shears, as oft as there is occasion: The _alaternus_ will be up in a

month or two after it is sown: I was wont to wash them out of the berry,

and drying them a little in a cloath, commit them to the nursery-bed.

Plant it out at two years growth, and clip it after rain in the Spring,

before it grows sticky, and whilst the shoots are tender; thus will it

form an hedge (though planted but in single rows, and at two foot

distance) of a yard in thickness, twenty foot high (if you desire it)

and furnish’d to the bottom: but for an hedge of this altitude, it would

require the friendship of some wall, or a frame of lusty poles, to

secure against the winds one of the most delicious objects in nature:

But if we could have store of the _philyrea folio leviter serrato_ (of

which I have rais’d some very fine plants from the seeds) we might fear

no weather, and the verdure is incomparable, and all of them tonsile,

fit for cradle-work and _umbracula frondium_: a decoction of the

_angustifolia_ soveraign for sore mouths.

11. The myrtil. The vulgar Italian wild myrtil (though not indeed the

most fragrant) grows high, and supports all weathers and climates; they

thrive abroad in Bretany, in places cold and very sharp in Winter; and

are observ’d no where to prosper so well, as by the sea-coasts, the air

of which is more propitious to them (as well as to oranges and lemmons,

&c.) than the inland air. I know of one near eighty years old, which has

been continually expos’d; unless it be, that in some exceeding sharp

seasons, a little dry straw has been thrown upon it; and where they are

smitten, being cut down near the ground, they put forth and recover

again; which many times they do not in pots and cases, where the roots

are very obnoxious to perish with mouldiness. The shelter of a few mats,

and straw, secur’d very great trees (both leaf and colour in perfection)

this last Winter also, which were planted abroad; whilst those that were

carried into the conserve, were most of them lost. Myrtils (which are of

six or eight sorts) may be rais’d of seeds; as also may several

varieties of oranges and lemmons, and made (after some years attendance)

to produce fruit in the cold Rhetia and Helvetick valleys; but with

great caution, and after all, seldom prove worth the pains, being so

abundantly multiplied of suckers, slips and layers: The double-flower

(which is the most beautiful) was first discovered by the incomparable

Fabr. Piereshy, which a mule had cropt from a wild shrub. Note, that you

cannot give those plants too much compost or refreshing, nor clip them

too often, even to the stem; which will grow tall, and prosper into any

shape; so as arbours have been made of single trees of the hardy kind,

protected in the Winter with sheads of straw and reeds. Both leaves and

berries refrigerate, and are very astringent and drying, and therefore

seldom us’d within, except in fluxes: With wine and honey it heals the

noisome _polypus_, and the powder corrects the rankness of the arm-pits,

and _gousset_ (as the French term it) to which divers of the female sex

are subject: The berries mitigate the inflammations of the eyes,

consolidate broken-bones; and a decoction of the juice, leaves, and

berries, dyes the hair black, & _enecant vitiligenes_, as Dioscorides

says, l. 1. c. 128. And there is an excellent sweet water extracted from

the distill’d leaves and flowers: To which the naturalist adds, that

they us’d the berries instead of pepper, to stuff and farce with them.

Hence the _mortadella a mortatula_, still so call’d by the Italians,

perhaps the μυρτίδες of Athenæus, _deip._ l. 2. c. 12. The _vinum

myrtites_ so celebrated by the{290:1} ancients, and so the oyl; And in

some places the leaves for tanning of leather: and trees have grown to

such substance, as of the very wood curious cups and boxes have been

turn’d.

The variety of this rare shrub, now furnishing the gardens and portico’s

(as long as the season and weather suits) and even in the severest

Winters in the conclave, are cut and contriv’d into various figures, and

of divers variegations, most likely to be produc’d by the seeds, as our

learned Mr. Ray believes, rather than by layers, suckers, or slips, or

from any difference of species: In the mean time, let gardeners make

such trials, whilst those most worth the culture, are the small and

broad-leav’d, the Tarentine, the Belgick, _latifolia_, and

double-flower’d, and several more among the curious; and of old, sacred

to Venus, so call’d from a virgin belov’d of Minerva, the garlands of

the leaves and blossoms, impaling the brows of incruentous, and unbloody

victors and ovations.

And now if here for the name only, I mention the _myrtus Brasantica_,

or candle-berry shrub (which our plantations in Virginia, and other

places have in plenty) let it be admitted: It bears a berry, which being

boil’d in water, yields a suet or pinguid substance, of a green colour,

which being scumm’d and taken off, they make candles with, in the shape

of such as we use of tallow, or wax rather; giving not only a very clear

and sufficient light, but a very agreeable scent, and are now not seldom

brought hither to us, but the tree it self, of which I have seen a

thriving one.