Philemon Holland, translator (1601): C. Plinius Secundus The Historie of the World. Book XVI. (Pages 454-???).


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THE XVI. BOOKE OF

THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE,

WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS

SECVNDVS.


The Proëme

HItherto have we treated of those Trees that beare Aples and such like fruits: which likewise with their mild juice and sweet liquors made our meats first delightsome, and taught us to mingle together with the necessarie food for sustentation of our lives, that which maketh it delicate and pleasant to content our tast: as well those trees that naturally were so in the beginning, as those which through the industrie and skill of man, what by graffing and what by wedding them (as it were) to others, become toothsome, and delectable to our tongue: whereby also wee have gratified in some sort wild beasts, and done pleasure to the foules of the aire. It followeth now by order, that we should discourse likewise of trees that beare Mast, those trees (I say) which ministred the first food unto our forefathers, and were the nourices that fed and cherished mankind in that rude and wild age and poor infancie of the world: but that I am forced to breake the course of mine historie, and prevented with a deepe studie and admiratin arising from the truth and ground of experience, to consider, What manner of life it might be, to live without any trees or shrubs at all growing out of the earth.

Chap. I.

Of nations that have no trees nor plants among them. Of wonderfull trees in the Northerly regions.

WE have shewed heretofore,1 that in the East parts verily toward the maine Ocean, there be many countries in that estate, to wit, altogether destitute of trees. In the North also I my selfe have seene the people called a Cauchi, as well the greater as the lesse (for so they may be distinguished) where there is no shew or mention at all of any tree. For a mightie great compasse, their countrey lieth so under the Ocean, and subject to the tide, that twice in a day & night by turnes, the sea overfloweth a mightie deale of ground when it is floud, & leaveth all drie again at the ebbe & return of the water; insomuch, as a man can hardly tell what to make of the outward face of the earth in those parts, so doubtfull it is between sea and land. The poor sillie peple that inhabit those parts, either keepe together on such high hils as Nature hath afforded here & there in the plain: or els raise mounts with their owne labour and handie work (like to Tribunals cast up and reared with turfe, in a campe) above the height of the sea, at any Spring tide when the floud is highest; and thereupon they set their cabines and cottages. Thus dwelling as they doe, they seeme (when it it high water, & that all the plaine is overspread with the sea round about) as if they were in littel barkes floting in the middest of the sea: againe, at a low water when the sea is gone, looke upon them, you would take them for such as had suffered shipwracke, having their vessels cast away, and left lying ato-side amid the sands: for yee shall see the poore wretches fishing about their cottages, and following after the fishes as they go away with the water. They have not a four-footed beast among them: neither enjoy they any benefite of milke, as their neighbour nations doe: nay, they are destitute of all meanes to chase wild beasts, and hunt for venison; in as much as there is neither tree nor bush to give them harvour, nor any neare unto them by a great way. Sea-weeds or sleike, rushes and reeds growing upon the washes & meeres, serve them to twist for cords to make their fishing nets with. These poore soules and sillie creatures are faine to gather a slimie kind of fattie mud or oase, with their very hands, which they drie against the wind rather than the Sunne; and with that earth, for want of other fewell, they make fire to seeth their meat (such as it is) and heat the inward parts of their bodie, readie to bee starke and stiffe againe with the chilling North wind. No other drinke have they but raine water, which they save in certaine ditches after a shower, and those they dig at the very entrie of their cottages. And yet see I this people (as wretched and miserable a case as they bee in) if they were subdued at this day by the people of Rome, would say (and none sooner than they) that they lived in slaverie. But true it is, that Fortune spareth many men, to let them live still in paine and miserie. Thus much as touching want of woods and trees.

On the other side, as wonderfull it is to see the mightie forrests at hand thereby, which overspread all the rest of Germanie: and are so big, that they yeeld both cooling and shade to the whole countrey. Yea, the very tallest woods of all the rest are a little way up higher in the countrey, and not farre from the Cauchi abovesaid: and especially those that grow about the two great loughes or lakes in that tract. Upon the bankes whereof, as also upon the sea-coasts, there are to be seene thicke rowes of big Okes, that love their seat passing well, and thrive upon it in growth exceeding much: which trees happening to be either undermined by the waves and billowes of the sea under them, eating within their roots, or chased with tempestuous winds beating from above, carie away with them into the sea (in manner of Islands) a great part of the Continent, which their roots doe claspe and embrace: wherewith being counterpoised and ballaised, they stand upright, floting and making saile (as it were) amid the waves, by the meanes of their mightie armes which serve in stead of tackling. And many a time verily, such Okes have frightened our fleets and armadoes at sea: and especially in the night season, when as they seemed to come directly against their proes standing at anker, as if of purpose they were driven upon them by the waves of the sea: insomuch, as the sailers and passengers within, having no other meanes to escape them, were put their shifts, and forced for to addresse themselves, and range a naval battell in order, and all against trees, as their very enemies.

Chap. II.

Of the huge and great forrest Hercynia.

In the same North climate is the mightie forrest Hercynia. A huge and large wood this is, stored with tall and big Okes, that never to this day were topt or lopt. It is supposed they have beene ever since the creation of the world, and (in regard of their eternall immortalitie) surmounting all miracles besides whatsoever. And to let passe all other reports which happily would be thought incredible, this is knowne for certaine, That the roots of the trees there, run and spread so farre within the ground, that they encounter and meet one another:in which resistance they swell and rise upward, yea, and raise up mounts of earth with them to a good height in many places: or, where as the earth followeth not, a man shall see the bare roots embowed arch-wise, and mounting aloft as high as the very boughes: which roots are so interlaced, or else rub one against the other, striving (as it were) not to give place, that the make a shew of great portailes or gates standing open so wide, that a whole troupe or squadron of horsemen may ride uprigt under them in ordinance of battell.

Chap. III.

Of trees bearing Mast.

Mast trees they were all, for the most part, which the romanes ever so highly honoured and held in best account.

Chap. IV.

Of the Civicke guirland: and who were honoured with chaplets of tree-leaves.

From Mast trees [and the Oke especially] came the Civicke coronets. And in very truth, these were the most honourable badges and ornaments that could possibly bee given unto souldiours and men of warre, in regard of their vertue and manhood: yea, and now for a good while, our Emperours have had this chaplet graunted unto them, in token and testimonie of clemencie: ever since that by our prophane and unkind civile warres the world is growne to this passe, that it is reputed a singular demerite2 and gracious act, not to kill a cittizen of Rome, but to let him live. To this kind of guirland, none other be comparable: for the Murall and Vallare coronets (bestowed upon them that either skaled the walls, or entred the breach first into an enemie citie, or else mounted over the rampier of a campe) albeit they were of gold, and of greater price by farre, yet they gave place to these. Yea, the very Navall coronets, fashioned like the three forked pikes of ship beake-heads (wherwith they were honoured, who had performed some brave service at sea) came behind these Civick guirlands, due to them who have rescued citizens and saved them out of the enemies hands: and yet in these our daies there have beene knowne twaine in that kind most renowmed above the rest; whereof the one was bestowed upon M. Varro, by Pompey the Great, for defeating the pyrates, and for scouring & clearing the seas of them: the other likewise given to M. Agrippa by [Augustus] Cæasar, for vanquishing the Sicilians, who also were no better than rovers.

Now for as much as we are light upon the mention of Navll or Rostrate coronets, this would be noted, That in old time the said brasen beake-heads of ships woon from the enemies, and set forth upon the front of the Tribunall or publicke pulpit in Rome, served for an ornament to beautifie the Forum or common place of the citie; so as the very bodie of the people of Rome seemed to be crowned and honoured thereby. But after that the Tribunes began in making seditious Orations, began to stampe and fare like mad men there, to trample (I say) under foot, and to pollute that sacred place and those goodly engines; after that they fell once every man to make his privat and particular profit of the common good, without regard to advance the weale publicke; after that each one sought to strengthen and arme himselfe by the benefite of authoritie, and that to the weakening of the maine state, insomuch as they who were reputed by their place sacrosanct and inviolable, polluted and profaned all: then the said ornaments of beake-heads, which beautified the place under their feet, served to adorne the heads of Romane cittizens. So as, to returne againe now to the abovenamed Agrippa, August Cæsar gave unto him a Navall coronet for subduing the Sicilian pyrates: and himselfe received of mankind a Civicke chaplet, for sparing the bloud, and saving the lives of so many citizens.

In auncient time they used to crowne none but the gods. And hereupon it is, that the Poet Homer speaketh of no guirlands and chaplets but due to the celestiall & heavenly wights, or at leastwise in the name of a whole armie, for victorie achieved in some notable battell: for to one man alone hee alloweth not any, no not in regard of the better hand in combate or single fight. And to say a truth, the first that ever set a guirland upon his owne head, was prince Bacchus, and the same was made of Ivie: but afterwards, those that sacrificed to the honor of gods, not only ware chaplets themselves, but also adorned therewith the heads of the very beasts which were appointed to be killed for sacrifice. In the end, the custome was taken up to honour them with guirlands, who wan prizes at those sacred and solemne games, Olympia, Isturia, Pythia, and Nemœa. Howbeit the manner was then, and so continueth to this day, to give chaplets to the said victours, not in their owne name, but in the behalfe of their native country, which by open proclamation they pronounced to be crowned and honoured thereby. And hereof it came also, that such coronets and chaplets were graunted to them that should triumph, yea and soon after to those also who had woon the prize in any publick games, upon condition to dedicate them to the temple of the gods.

To discourse what romane cittizen received this honour first of a chaplet or coronet, were a long peece of worke, and nothing pertinent to our purpose and matter in hand: considering that they were acquainted with none at all, but in regard of service performed in the warres. Yet thus much I may averre for certein, That no nation under heaven, nay put them all togither, can shew so many sorts of chaplets and coronets, as this one state and people of Rome. K Romulus crowned Hostus Hostilius with a guirland of bare greene leaves, for that in the forcing and ruining of Fidena, he brake first into the citie and made way for the rest. This man was grandsire to Tullius Hostilius king of Rome. Semblably in the warre against the Samnites, wherein Cornelius Cossus the Consull was L. Generall, the whole armie crowned P. Decius the father with a chaplet of greene leaves, who then was a martiall Tribune or Colonell over a regiment of souldiors, soe that he had saved and delivered the said armie.

But now to come againe to our Civicke guirland, it was made at first of the Ilex or Holme tree leaves: afterwards men tooke a better liking to make it of the Æsculus, a tree consecrated to Iupiter. They staied not there, but chaunged soone after with the common oke; neither made they any precise choise, but tooke the leaves of that which came next to hand, wheresoever they found it growing; provided alwaies that it bare acorns: for all the honour of these guirlands consisted principally in the mast. Moreover, there belong to these Civicke guirlands streight lawes and ordinances, in which regard these chaplets be proud and stately; and wee may be bold to compare them with that Paragon-coronet of the Greekes, which passeth all others, given solemnly and published in the presence of Iupiter, and made of the wild Olive dedicated unto him: comparable (I say) to any crowne or chaplet whatsoever; even to that, for which a citie in token of joy, would not sticke to lay open a b breach in their very wall to receive when it should enter in. The lawes ordained in this behalfe run in this forme, Imprimis, Hee that is to enjoy the honour of a Civicke chaplet, ought, First, To have rescued a citizen, and withall to kill the enemiein whose daunger he was. Item, It is required, that the enemies the same day held the very ground and were masters hereof, wherein the rescue was made and the service performed. Item, that the partie himselfe so saved, doe confesse the thing, for otherwise all the witnesses in the world availe not in this case. Item, that the man thus delivered, must be a free citizen of Rome in any hand: for set case that hee were a king which were thus rescused, if he were a straunger, and came only among the auxiliaries to aid the Romans, it would not boot, nor gaine any man this honour for to save his life. Item, Say that the Generall himselfe were rescued and delivered out of daunger, the partie for his good service should have no more honour done unto him, then if he had preserved but a simple common souldior, so hee were a Romane citizen: for the makers of these ordinances aimed chiefly at the life of a citizen whosoever he was, without regard of any other circumstance. Item, Hee that was once crowned with this guirland, was endued also with these priviledges: That he might weare it alwaies after, whensoever it pleased him: That so often as he came in place of publicke plaies or games, men should acoustomably rise up unto him, yea and the very Senators themselves, doe him honour in that sort: That he should have his place allowed him next to those of Senators degree: That both himselfe, and also his father and grandsire by the fathers side, should ever after be exempt from all civile charges and enjoy full immunitie. Thus much concerning the lawes and priviledges attending upon the Civicke guirland. Siccius Dentatus (as we have specified before3) received fourteene of these chaplets for his good service: [Manlius] Capitolinus six, and he verily had one of them for rescuing Servilius being Generall of the armie. As for Scipio Africanus, he refused this honour when it was offered and presented unto him, for saving the life of his own father at the journey and battaile of Trebia. O the excellent orders & customs of those times, worthie of immortalitie & everlasting memorie! ô the wisdome of men in those daies, who assigned no other reward for so brave exploits and singular works, but honor only! and wheras all other militarie coronets they enriched and adorned with gold, they would not set the life of a citizen at any price. A plaine and evident profession of our auncestors and predecessours, That it is an unlawfull and shamefull thing to seeme to save a mans life, in hope of any gaine and profit thereby.

Chap. V.

Of Mast, thirteene kinds.

Many nations there be even at this day, and such as enjoy peace and know not what want meaneth, whose wealth and riches lyeth principally in Mast: yea and elsewhere in time of dearth and for want of other graine, folke use to drie their mast, grind it into meale, temper it with water, and thereof make dough for bread. Morever, even at this day throughout Spaine, the manner is to serve up acorns and mast to the table for a second service: & sweeter it is being rosted under the cinders and ashes, than otherwise. Over and besides, provided it is by an expresse act and law of the twelve tables of Rome, That a man may gather the mast that falleth from his owne trees into another mans ground.

Divers and sundrie sorts there be of Mast, and their difference consisteth in the forme and fashion of the fruit, in the site and situation of the place, in the sex, and in the tast: for the mast of the Beech tree is of one figure and making, the Acorne (which is the mast of the Oke) another; and the mast of the Holme or Ilex, differeth from them both: yea & in every one of those kinds, they doe varie one from another. Also, some are of trees growing wild; others mor emild and gentle, loving places well tilled and ordered by husbandrie. Some like the hillie countries, and others the champaine and the plaines. Semblably there is mast comming from the male trees: there is again that groweth on the female. In like manner, the rellish and tast maketh a difference and diversitie in mast. The sweetest of all, is the Beechmast: for Cornelius Alexander reporteth, That the inhabitants of Chios, when they were streightly beleaguered, endured the siege a long time by the benefit and substance only of that mast. We are not able distinctly to specifie name by name, the sundrie sorts of mast and the trees which beare the same, considering that in everie countrey they alter their names: for wee see the Robur and the Oke to grow commonly everie where, but the Escules is not so rife in all countries. A fourth sort there is of the same kind, which is not knowne ordinarily in most places of Italy. We will therefore distinguish them according to their nature and properties: yea and when need shall require, by their Greeke names also.

Chap. VI.

Of the Beech mast, and other Masts: of Charcole: and the feeding of Hogs.

The Beech mast is like to the Kernell of a Chesnut, enclosed within a three-cornered skin. The leafe of the tree is thin and very light, resembling that of the Poplar: it turneth yellow passing soone. In the middle whereof, for the most part, and in the upper side, it bringeth forth a little greene berrie, pointed sharp at the top. The mast of Beech, Rats and Mice are much delighted in: marke therefore when there is store of that mast, yee shall have as great encrease of that vermin. It will feed also Reremice or Dormice fat: and the Ousels or Blackbirds take a great liking thereto, and will flie unto it. Lightly, all trees are more fruitfull one yeare than another, and beare most every second yeare; but above all, Beeches keepe this course. As touching Mast (whch properly is so called) it groweth upon the Robur, the common Oke, the Esculus, Cerrus, Ilex, and Corke tree. All kinds of mast are conteined more or lesse, within a rough cup, which lieth close to the utmost skin thereof, & claspeth it about. The leaves of all these mast trees, except the mast-Holme Ilex, be heavie, fleshie, large, waved or indented along the sides, neither be they yellow when they fall, as the Beech leaves are; longer also or shorter, according to the divers trees whereupon they grow.

Of the Ilex or mast-Holme tree, there be two sorts. Those in Italy differ not much in leafe from the Olive. Some Greekes call them Smilaces, but in other provinces Aquifoliæ. The mast of Ilex, both the one and the other, is shorter and slenderer than of the rest: Homer calleth it Acylon, by which name he distinguisheth it from other mast. The male Holms (men say) beare no fruit. The best mast and the biggest, is the Acorne growing upon the common Oke: next to it is that of the Esculus: as for that of the Robur, it is but small. The Cerrus carrieth a mast unpleasant to the eie, and rough to be handled, for clad it is with a cup beset with sharpe pricks like to the Chesnut shell. Among the very Acornes, some have a sweeter tast than others: the female Oke beareth those that be more soft and tender; themale, tough, thicke, and massie: and the best simply are those that come of the broad-leafed Oke, for so it is called by reason of the large leaves. Moreover, there is another difference in mast and acorns, for some be bigger than others; again, there are that have thin & fine skins enclosing the kernell; and ye shall find others for them as thicke skinned; likewise many of them are covered with a rough and rustie tunicle; and many again do shew immediatly their bare white skin and naked substance. Furthermore, that mast is accounted good, which at both ends (taking it long-waies) groweth hard in manner of a tsone: howbeit that which hath an hard shell without, and a soft bodie within, is better than that which is hardened in the carnous substance of the bodie; and lightly neither of both these qualities happeneth to any but the male kind. Over and besides, some you shall find fashioned long like an egge; others as round as a ball; and a third sort that be pointed. The outward colour also yeeldeth varietie: for some be blacker than other, but the whiter commonly be the better set by. Some are bitter toward the ends, and sweeter in the mids. The length also & the shortnesse of the stele or taile whereto they hang, maketh a difference. The very tree it selfe causeth diversitie of the fruit: for that oke which beareth the biggest mast, is named Hemeris. A shorter tree this is than the rest, with a round head, and putting foorth many hollow armepits (as it were) of boughs and braunches. The wood or timber of the ordinarie and common Oke is tougher and harder than that of others, and lesse subject to putrefaction: full of arms & boughs it is, as the other, but it groweth taller and is thicker in the bodie. The highest of all, is the Ægilops, which loveth to grow in wild and desart places. Next to it for talnesse, is the broad-leaved Oke, but the timber thereof is not so good and profitable for building, however it be emploied for to make charcole: yet being once squared to that purpose, & cleft, it is subject to the worme, and will soone rot: and for this cause, being in quarters, they use not to make cole of it cloven, but of the solid and round boughs or braunches thereof. And yet this kind of charcole serveth only the Bloome-smithies and furnaces; the hammer-mils also of brasse and copper-smiths,, whom it standeth in great good stead and saveth them much fewell; for it burneth and consumeth no longer than the bellowes goe: let them leave blowing once, presently the cole dies; and so it lasteth long: for at every new blast it is renewed againe and refreshed: otherwise it sparkleth very much and yeeldeth many cinders. But the charcole made of yong trees is the better. Now the manner of making them, is this: when the wood is cut into many clefts & splents, fresh and green, they are heaped up on high, and hollow, in manner of a furnace or chimney, and then well luted with clay in the top, and all about: which done, the pile of truncheons aforesaid is set on fire within; and as the outward coat or crust of clay beginneth to wax hard, the workemen or colliars pierce it with poles and pearches, and make diverse holes therein for vent, and to let out the smoakie vapour that doth sweat and breath from the wood. The worst of all other for timber or cole, is the oke named Haliphleos; a thicke barke it hath, and as big a bodie, but for the most part hollow and light like a spunge or mushrome: and there is not another besides of all the kind of trees, that rotteth as it stands alive. Besides, so unfortunate it is, that the lightning smiteth it, as low as it groweth; for none of them ariseth to any great height: which is the cause that it is not lawfull to use the wood thereof about the burning of any sacrifice. Seldome beareth it any Acorns, and those few that it hath, be exceeding bitter, so as no other beast will touch them, but swine again; nor they neither, but for pure hunger, when can meet with no other food. Morever, in this regard also rejected it is, and not emploied in any religious use, for that without blowing at the wood and cole thereof continually, it will not burne cleare and consume the sacrifice, but goeth out and lieth dead.

But to returne unto our mast againe: That of the Beech tree feedeth swine quickly, maketh their flesh and lard faire and pleasant to the eye, tender to be soone sodden or rosted, light and easie of digestion, and good for the stomacke. The mast of the Holme causeth hogs to gather a more fast and compact flesh, their bodies to be neat, slender, lanke, and ponderous. Acorns doe engender a fleshie substance, more square and spreading, and the same also most heavy and hardest of digestion, and yet they are of all other kinds of mast, most sweet and pleasnt. Next to them in goodness (by the testimonie of Nigidius) is that of the tree Cerrus, neither is there bread of any other a courser flesh, howbeit hard it is, fast, and tough. As for the mast of Ilex, hogs are endaungered by eating thereof, unlesse it be given them warily by little and little. Hee saith moreover, that of all other it falleth last. Moreover, the mast of Esculus, Robur, and the Corke, causeth the flesh to be spungeous and hollow. To conclude, what trees soever beare mast, carrie also certaine nuts called Galls: and lightly they are full of mast but each other yeare. But the oke Hemeris beareth the best galls, and finest for the curious to dresse their leather. The broad leafed oke hath a kind of galls like unto it, but lighter in substance, and not so good by far: it carieth also blacke galls (two sorts there be) and this is better for the dier to colour wooll.

Chap. VII.

Of the Gall nuts: and how many other things Mast-trees doe beare besides Mast.

The nuts called galls, doe ever breake out all at once in a night, and namely about the beginning of Iune, when the sunne is readie to goe out of the signe Gemini. The whiter sort thereof commeth to the growth in one day: and if in the first spring and breaking foorth thereof it be hot weather, it drieth and withereth out of hand, and commeth not to the full bignesse and perfection, namely to have a kernell as much as a Beane. The blacke of this kind continueth longer fresh and greene, and groweth still, to the bignesse otherwhiles of an apple. The best Galls be those of Comagena: the worst is that of the oke called Robur, which are knowne by the holes they have, that may be seen through. The common oke Quercus, over and besides the fruit (which is the mast) beareth many other things; for it carieth both sorts of Gall, the black and the white: certaine berries also like Mulberries, but that they be drie and hard, resembling for the most part a Bulls head, conteining within them a fruit much like the kernels of the Olive. Moreover, there grow upon it certain little balls not unlike to nuts, having soft flox within good to make candle-wicke or matches for lamps; for burn they will without any oile, like as the black Galls. It beareth also other little pills or balls good for nothing, covered with haire, & yet in the spring time they yeeld a certain juice or liquor like honey. Furthermore, there breed in the hollow arme-pits (as it were) of the boughs, other small pills setled or sticking close to the wood, and not hanging by any steles, which toward the navill or bottome thereof are whitish; otherwise they be speckled all over with blacke spots, save that in the mids betweene they are of a scarlet red colour:open them, and hollow they are within, but very bitter. Sometimes also this Oke engendreth certain hard callosities, like Pumish stones; yea and other round balls made of the leaves folded one within another: on the backeside also of the leafe where it is reddish, yee shall find sticking certaine waterish petals, white and transparant or cleare within, so long as they be soft and tender, wherein there breed little flies or gnats: howbeit in the end they ripen and wax harder, in manner of Galls.

Chap. VIII.

Of the Catkin called Cachrys: the graine of Scarlet: of Agaricke, and Corke.

The Oke called Robur, bringeth forth likewise a certaine pendant chat or catkin, named in Greeke Cachrys: for so they tearme the little pill, which is of a burning and causticke nature, and whereof there is use in Physicke for potentiall cauteries. The like groweth upon Firres, Larch trees, Pitch trees, Lindens or Tillets, Nut-trees, and Planes, namely after the leaves be falne; and abideth upon the trees in winter time. These chats have a kernell within like to those of Pine-nuts. It beginneth to grow in winter, and by the sprint time all of it openeth and spreadeth to the proofe; but when the leaves begin to bud and put forth, it falleth off. Thus you see how fruitfull these Okes be, and how many things besides mast, they do bring forth. And yet they cease not nor give over thus, for many times a man shall see certaine excrescences growing forth about their roots, such as toadstools and mushrooms; the last devises that our gluttons have invented to whet their appetite and stomacke, and to maintaine gourmandize. The common Oke breedeth the best of this kind: as for those that grow about the Oke Robur, the Cypresse, and Pine tree, they are hurtfull to be eaten and venomous. Moreover, Hesiodus saith, that the Okes Robora do beare Misselto, and yeeld honey. True it is indeed, that the honey-dews called Manna, falling from heaven (whereof we have spoken before4) light not upon any other leaves more than of those Okes. Moreover, this is knowne for certain, that the ashes of this oke when it is burnt, hath a qualitie of nitre or salt-peter.

Howbeit for all the riches and fruit that the Oke affourdeth, the Scarlet graine alone which commeth of the Ilex, challengeth yea and overmatcheth it. This graine is no other than a verie excrement or superfluitie arising about the stem of the small shrub called Ilex Aquifolia, scraped and pared off from it, like such refuse as they call Cusculium or Quisquilium:5 but of such price it is, that the poore people of Spaine gather it, & make a good part of their revenew thereby, even as much as will pay halfe their tribute. As touching the commendable use thereof in dying, wee have sufficiently spoken in the discourse of the purple tincture.6 This scarlet graine is engendred also in Galatia, Africa, Pisidia, and Cicilia. but the worst of al others is that which commeth out of Sardinia.

As for Agaricke, it groweth in Fraunce principally upon trees that beare mast, in manner of a white mushrom: of a sweet savor, very effectuall in Physicke, and used in many Antidotes and soveraigne confections. It growth upon the head and top of trees: it shineth in the night, and by the light that it giveth in the darke, men know where and how to gather it.

Of all Mast trees, the Oke called by the Greekes Ægylops, beare certaine drie excrescences swelling out like touchwood, covered all over with a hoarie and hairie mosse, and these not onely beare out from the barke of the fruit, but also hang downe from the boughs a cubit in length: and odoriferous they are, as we have shewed in our treatise of Ointments.7

Now concerning Corke, the woodie substance of the tree is very small, the mast as bad, hollow, spongeous, and good for nothing. The barke onely serveth for many purposes, which will grow again when the tree is barked, and that of such a thicknes, that it will beare a ten foot square. Much use there is of it in ships, & namely for boys to ancre cables; also for flotes to trainels or dragnets that fishers doe occupie: moreover in bungs and stopples of barrels, bottles, and such like vessels. Finally, our gentlewomen and daintie dames have the soles of their pantofles and winter-shoes underlaid therewith.8 In regard of which barke, the Greekes call it by a pretty name, and not improperly, The Barke tree, or the tree all barke. Howbeit some would have it to be the female Ilex or mast Holm, and so they name it: and where there growth no Ilex, in stead therof they take Corke, especially in carpentrie and cart-wrights worke, as about Elis and Lacedæmn. Neither groweth it in all parts of Fraunce, ne yet in any one quarter of Italy.

Chap. IX.

What trees they be that carrie barke good for any use.

The paisants of the countrey and the rusticall people employ much, the barke also of Beeches, Lindens or Tillets, Firres, and Pitch trees: for thereof they make sundry vessels, as paniers, baskets, and certain broad and wide hampers for to carrie their corne and grapes in time of harvest and vintage, yea and otherwhiles they cover their cottages therewith. Moreover, spies use to write in barkes (when they be fresh and green) intelligences to their captaines; graving and drawing their letters so, as that the sap and juice thereof covereth them. To conclude, the barke of the Beech tree is used in certaine religious ceremonies of sacrifice: but when the tree is spoiled of the barke, it soone fadeth and dieth.

Chap. X.

Of Shindles: of the Pine tree, the wild Pine, the firr, Pitch tree, Larch tree, Torch tree, and the Yew.

The bourds or shindles9 of the wild Oke called Robur, be of all others simply the best: and next to them, those which are made of other mast-trees, and especially of the Beech. The shindles are most easily rent or cloven out of all those trees which yeeld Rosin, but setting aside the Pine-wood onely, none of them are lasting. Cornelius Nepos writeth, that the housen in Rome were no otherwise covered over head but with shindles, until the warre with K. Pyrrhus, to wit, for the space of 470 years after the foundation of the citie. And of a truth, the chiefe quarters of Rome were divided and distinctly named by cerain woods and groves neare adjoyning. And even at this day there remaineth the quarter of Jupiter Fagutalis, where sometime stood a tuft or grove of Beeches: also the gate Querquerulana, bearing the name of an Oke-row: likewise the hill Viminalis, from whence they used to fetch windings and bands of osiers: and many other groves, whereof some were set double, and were two of a name. Wee read in the Chronicles, that Q. Hortensius Dictator for the time being, (when as the commons arose, and in that mutinie or insurrection forsook the citie and withdrew themselves to the fort Ianiculum) made a law and puslihed it within a certaine grove hard by, called Esculetum, where there grew a number of trees named Esculi, and the said statute ran in this forme, That whatsoever ordinance should be enacted by the same Comminaltie, it should bind all citizens of Rome whomsoever, to observe and keepe.

In those daies Pine and Firre, and generally all trees that yeeld Pitch, were held for straungers and aliens, because none of them were knowne to grow near unto the citie of Rome: wherof now we will speake, the rather because the beginning and the whole manner of confecting and preserving wines, might be thereby throughly known. First and foremost, some of the trees aforesaid10 in Asia or in the East parts, doe bring forth Pitch. In Europe there be sixe sorts of trees, seeming all of one race, which yeeld the same. Of which, the Pine and the Pinaster carie leaves thin and slender in manner of haires, long also and sharpe pointed at the end. The Pine beareth least Rosin of all others, howbeit otherwise some it hath in the verie fruit thereof, which we call Pine-nuts or apples (whereof we havea alreadie written11) yet so little is, that hardly a man would reckon the Pine among those kind of trees that yeeld Rosin. The Pinaster is nothing els but the wild Pine: it groweth wonderfull tall, putting forth armes from the mids of the trunke or bodie upward; whereas the other Pine, brauncheth only in the head: this of the twaine is more plentifull in Rosin, whereof we will speake more anon. These wild Pines grow also upon plains. There be trees upon the coasts of Italie which men call Tibuli, and many think they be the same, though they carie another name: slender they are and shorter, altogither without knots, and little Rosin they have in them or none: but they serve very well for shipwrights to build frigats & brigandins.

The Pitch-tree loveth the mountains and cold grounds: a deadly and mournfull tree it is, for they used in old time to sticke up a braunch thereof at the dores of those houses where a dead corps was, to give knowledge thereof abroad: yea and commonly it grew greene in churchyards and such places where the manner was to burne the bodies of the dead in funerall fires: but now adaies it is planted in courtyards and gardens near our houses, because it may be easily kept with cutting and shredding, it brauncheth so well. This tree putteth forth great abundance of Rosin, with white graines or kernels comming betweene, so like unto Frankincense, that if it be mingled therewith, unneth or hardly a man may discerne the one from the other by the eye. And hereupon it commeth, that druggists and Apothecaries doe sophisticate Frankincense and deceive folke with it. All the sort of these trees are leafed with short, thicke, and hard prickie bristles, in manner of the Cypresse. The Pitch tree beginneth to shoot forth braunches even from the very root almost, and those be but small, bearing out like armes, and sticking one against another in the sides. Semblably do the Fir-trees, which are so much sought for to serve shipping: and yet this tree delighteth in the highest mountains, as if it fled from the sea of purpose, and could not away with it: and surely the forme and manner of growing is all one with the Pitch tree. The wood thereof is principall good timber for beames, and fitteth our turne for many other necessities of this life. Rosin if it be found in the Firre, is thought a fault in the wood, whereas the only commoditie of the Pitch tree, is her Rosin; and yet sometime there frieth and sweateth out a little thereof, in the extreme heat of the sun. The timber of them both is not alike, for that of the Firre is most faire and beautifull; the Pitch tree wood serveth only for cloven lath, or rent shindles, for Coopers to make tubs and barrels, and for some few other thin bourds and painels.

As for the Larch tree, which is the fift kind of those that beare Rosin: like it is to the rest, and loveth to grow in the same places: but the timber is better by ods, for it rotteth not, but will last and endure a long time: the tree will hardly be killed: besides, it is red of color, and carieth an hoter and stronger smell than the other. There issueth forth of the tree as it is growing, good store of liquid Rosin, in colour like to honey, somwhat more clammie, which will never grow to be hard.

A sixt sort there is of these trees, and it is properly called Teda, [i. the Torch-tree:] the same yeeldeth more plentie of moisture and liquor than the rest: lower it is of growth than the Pitch-tree, but more liquid and thin: very commendable also to maintain fire at sacrifices, and to burn in torches for to give light. These trees, I meane the male onely, bring forth that long and stinking rosin, which the Greekes call Syce. Now, if it happen that the Larch tree prove Teda [i. to be Torch-wood] it is a signe that it doth putrifie, and is in the way of dying.

The wood of all these kinds beforenamed, if it be set a fire, maketh an exceeding grosse and thicke smoke, and presently turneth ito a coal, spitting and sparckling a farre off; except that only of the Larch tree, which neither burneth in light flame, nor maketh coale, ne yet consumeth in the fire no otherwise than a very stone.12

All these trees whereof we speake, continue green all the yeare long: and very like they are in leafe, that men otherwise of cunning and good experience, have ynough to doe to discerne one from the other by it, so neare of kin they be, and their race so much intermingled. But the Pitch-tree is not so tall as the larch: for the Larch is thicker in bodie, of a thinner and lighter barke, more shag leaved, and the said leaves fattier, growing thicker, more pliable, & easier to wind and bend; whereas the leaves of the Pitch-tree hang thinner, they be of a drier substance, more slender, and subject to cold; and in one word, the whole tree is more rough and hideous to see to, and withall, full of rosin; the wood also resembleth the Firre, rather than the Larch.

The Larch tree, if it be burnt to the very stump of the root, will not spring againe and put forth new shoots: whereas the Pitch tree liveth still for all the fire, and will grow afresh: the experience whereof was seene in the Island Lesbos, at what time as the forrest Pyrrhæum was set on fire, and cleane burnt to the ground.

Moreover, every ne of these kinds differ in the very sex: for the male of ech kind is shorter and harder: the female taller, having fattier leaves, and the same soft and plain and nothing stiffe and rugged. The wood of the male, is tough, and when it is wrought, keepeth not a direct graine, but windeth and turneth, so that the Carpenter must go every way about it both with axe and plain: contrariwise, that of the female is more frim and gentle. And commonly the axe or the hatchet will tell the difference of male and female in any tree; for what wood soever it be, it will soon find and feele the male, for hardly is it able to enter, but either turneth edge or rebounds again: & whether a man hew or cleave withall, it maketh more crashing and a greaer noise where it setleth and taketh hold; it sticketh also faster, and with more adoe is plucked forth. Furthermore, the very wood of any male tree, is of a more browne and burnt colour, yea, & the root of a blacker hew.

About the forrest Ida within the territorie of Troas, there is another distinction of trees in the same kind: for some grow upon the mountaines, others toward the coast and the sea side. In Macedonie, Arcadia, and about Elis, these trees eftsoones change their names: insomuch, as the Greeke writers are not agreed how to distinguish their severall sorts, and to raunge them duly in their kind. For mine owne part, I have set them downe distinctly according to the judgement of Romane and Latine Authors.

Of all the trees abovenamed, the Firres surpasse for bignesse: and the females are the taller. The timber is more frim and soft, more profitable also and easier to be wrought: the tree it selfe rounder, and so it brauncheth arch-wise: the boughs as they resemble wings stretched out and displaied, so they stand so thicke with leaves, that they will beare off a good shower, insomuch, as no raine is able to pierce through. In summe, the female Firre is farre more lovely and beautifull every way than the male.

All the sort of these foresaid trees, save onely the Larch, beare certaine knobs like Catkins or Chats, composed (as it were) of many skales wrought one over another, and those hang downe dangling at the braunches. These knobs or clogs of the male Firre, have in the upper end a kernell within: but those of the female have no such thing. Moreover, the Pitch tree as it hath such Catkins lesse and slenderer; so all within, from one end to the other, the kernels be passing little and blacke withall, like to lice or fleas: which is the reason, that the Greekes call is Phthirophoros. The said Catkins of the male Pitch trees are more flat, and nothing so round as those of the females, lesse gummie also and not so moist of the rosin.

To come now to the Yugh, because we would overpasse none: it is to see, like the rest, but that it is not so greene; more slender also and smaller, unpleasant and fearefull to look upon, as cursed tree, without any liquid substance at all: and of those kind of trees, it alne beareth Berries. The fruit of the male is hurtfull: for the berries in Spaine especially, have in them a deadly poyson. And found it hath been by experience, that in Fraunce the wine bottles made thereof for wayfaring men and travllers, have poysoned and killed those that drunke of them. Sextius saith, that the Greekes call it Smilax: and that in Arcadia it is so venomous, that whosoever take either repose or repast under it, are sure to die presently. And hereupon it commeth, that those poysons wherewith arrow heads be envenomed, after some were called in times past Taxica, which now wee name Toxica. But to conclude, it is seene by good proofe, that if a brasen wedge or spike be driven into the very bodie of the tree, it looseth all the venomous nature, and becommeth harmelesse.

Chap. XI.

How to make all kinds of Pitch. The manner how Cedrium is made. Also, of thicke pitch, how it is made, and in what sort Rosin is boiled.

The liquid Pitch or Tarre throughout all Europe, is boiled out of the torch tree: and this kind of Pitch serveth to cake ships withall, and for many other uses. Now the manner of drawing Tarre out of this Tree, is, to cut the wood thereof into peeces, and when they are piled up hollow into an heape, to make a great fire within, as it were under a furnace, being claied without-forth: thus with the heat of the fire it doth frie and seeth againe. The first liquor that sweateth and issueth forth, runneth cleare as water, in a channell or pipe made for the purpose: and this the Syrians call Cedrium:13 which is of such force and efficacie, that in Ægypt they use to embaulme the dead bodies of men and women departed, and keepe them from putrefaction. At the next running it is thicker, and this second liquor is very Pitch. Howbeit, this is cast again into certain coppers or cauldrons of brasse, and together with vinegre sodden a second time, untill it come to a thicke c consistence: and when it is thus thickened, it taketh the name of Brutian Pitch, good onely for tuns, barrels, and other such vessels. Much like it is to the former Pitch, but that it is more glutinous and clammie, redder also of colour, and more fattie. And thus much concerning the Pitch made of the Torch-tree.

As for that which commeth of the Pitch tree, the Rosin thereof is drawn with red hot stones in certain vessels made of strong and thicke Oken plankes: or, in default thereof the wood is cloven into peece, and piled together, after the order of a charcoale hearth, and so the pitch boileth foorth. The use hereof, when it is beaten into a kind of meale or powder, is to bee put into wine, and it is of a blacker colour than the rest. The same pitch-rosin, if it be boile more lightly with water, & be let to run through a strainer, commeth to a reddish colour, and is glewie: and thereupon it is called Stilled pitch. And for this purpose lightly, is set by the more grosse & faultie substance of the rosin, together with the barke of the tree. But there is another composition and manner of making pitch that serveth for headie wine, called Crapula. For the flower of the rosin is taken greenish and fresh, as it distilleth from the tree, together with a good quantitie of small, thinne, and short spils or chips of the tree plucked away with the same: the same are shred and minced so small, as they may passe through a sieve or a riddle, which done, all is put into scalding water, and there boileth untill it be incorporate with the water. The fat substance that is strained and pressed from hence, is the excellent pitch-rosin, hard to come by, and not to bee found in Italie, unlesse it bee in few places in the Alpes; and singular good it is in Physicke. Now for to make it passing white, there must bee taken one gallon of the rosin, and sodden in two gallons of raine water. But some thinke it the better way, to seeth it a whole day together at a soft fire, without any matter at all, in a pan or vessel of latton. Others there be likewise that boile Terpentine in a hote frying pan, and are of opinion, that this is the best of all others. And the next to it in goodnesse, is the Lentiske rosin, called Mastich.

Chap. XII.

Of the Pitch Zopissa, which is scraped from ships, and of Sapium. Also, what trees are in request for their timber.

It would not bee forgotten, that the Greekes have a certaine Pitch, scraped together with waxe from ships that have lien at sea, which they call Zopissa (so curious are men to make experiments and trie conclusions in every thing:) and this is throught to bee much more effectuall for all matters that pitch and rosin are good for, by reason of the fast temperature that it hath gotten by the salt water.

For to draw rosin out of the d Pitch-tree, it must be opened on the Sun side, not by giving a slit or gash in the barke, but by cutting out a peece therof, so that the tree may gape an dlie bare two foot at the most: and from the earth, this wound to bee at least a cubite. Neither doe they spare the entire bodie and wood of the tree, as they doe in the rest: for there is no daunger thereof, considering that the very chips of the wood being cut out, are full of liquor, and doe serve to make pitch. But the nearer that the said ouverture or hole is made to the earth, the better is the rosin that issueth forth: for if it be higher, it is bitter. When this is done, all the humour afterwards runneth to the ulcer or incision aforesaid, from every part of the tree. The like is done in the Torch pine. When it hath left running to the first hole, there is a second likewise made on another side, and so still is the tree opened every way: untill at length tree and all is hewed down ,and the very pith and marrow thereof serveth for Torch wood to burne. Semblably, in Syria they use to plucke the barke from the Terebinth, yea, and they pull the boughs and roots too for Terpentine, howsoever in other trees the rosin issuing out of those parts, is not conned good. In Macedonie the manner is to burne the male Larch, but the roots onely of the female for to draw out the pitch. Theopompus wrate, that there is found in the territorie of the Apolloniates, a kind of minerall pitch, called Piscasphaltum,14 nothing inferiour in goodnesse to the Macedonian.

The best pitch in all countries, is that which is gathered from trees, standing upon the North wind, and in places exposed to the Sunne-shine. As for that which commeth from shadowie places, it is more unpleasant to the eie, and carieth besides a strong and stinking savour. If it be a cold and hard winter, the pitch then made is the worse, there is also lesse store of it, and nothing is it so well coloured. Some are of opinion, That the pitch issueth in more abundance out of trees in the mountaines, also that it is better coloured, sweeter in tast, more pleasant also in smell, namely, while it is raw pitch-rosin, and as it runneth from the tree: but if it be boiled, it yeeldeth lesse plentie of pitch than that which commeth of trees in the plaine, and runneth all into a thin liquor in manner of whey, yea, & the very trees themselves are smaller. But both the one and the other, as well the mountaine pines and pitch-trees, as those of the plaines, yeeld not so much pitch in a faire and drie season, as when the weather is rainie and full of clouds. Moreover, some there be of these trees that yeeld forth fruit (which is their rosin) the very same yeare that immediately followeth their incision; others, two yeares after; yea, and some againe in the third yeare. As for the incision or open wound that is made, it filleth up with rosin: for neither dooth it souder or unite in manner of a skar, ne yet closeth the barke againe: for in this tree, being once devided it will never come together and meet.

Among these trees, some have reckoned one kind by it selfe named Sapium, because it is replanted and groweth of some of the sions or imps of the said trees, in manner as hath been shewed before in our treatise of nut kernels.15 The nether parts of which tree they call Teda [i. Torch-wood:] whereas indeed this tree is no other than the Pitch-tree, brought to a more mild and gentle nature by transplanting. As for that which the Latines call Sapinus, it is nothing else but the wood or timber of these kind of trees, being hewed or cut downe, as we will e hereafter declare in place convenient.

Chap. XIII.

Of the Ash, foure kinds thereof.

There be many trees besides that Nature hath brought forth, onely for their wood and timber: and among them the Ash, which of all others, groweth most plenteously in every place. A tall tree this is, and groweth round, bearing leaves set in manner of feathers or wings; much ennobled by the praise and commendation that the Poet Homer giveth it, as also for the speare or launce of Achilles, made thereof.16 And in very truth, the wood serveth right well for many uses. As for the timber of Ash, growing upon the forrest Ida in Troas, it is so like the Citron-wood,17 that when the bark is off, a man may hardly discern the one from the other, insomuch, as the merchants and chapmen are deceived therewith.

The Greekes have made two kinds of the Ash: the one runneth up tall and even without a knot: the other is lower, more tough and hard, and withall, or a more brown and duskish colour: and the leaves resemble the Laurell. In Macedonie they have an Ash, which they call Bumelia, which of all other is the tallest and biggest, the wood wherof is most pliable and bending. Others have put a difference betweene Ashes, according to the places: for that of the plaine and champion countrey, hath a more curled or frisled graine than the other of the mountaines, but contrariwise, the wood of this is more compact and harder than the other. The leaves of this tree, according to the Greekes, are hurtfull, venomous, and deadly to Horses, Mules, and such labouring garrons,18 but otherwise to beasts that chew cud, they be harmelesse. Howbeit, in Italie, if horses, &c. doe brouse of the leaves, they take no harme thereby. Moreover, they be excellent good, and nothing so soveraigne can be found against the poyson of serpents, if the juice thereof be pressed forth, & given to drinke; or to cure old ulcers, if they be applied and laid thereto in manner of a cataplasme: nay, so forcible is their vertue, that a serpent dare not come neare the shaddow of that tree, either morning or evening, notwithstanding at those times it reacheth farthest; you may be sure then they will not approch the tree it selfe, by a great way. And this I am able to deliver by the experience which I have seene, that if a man doe make a round circle with the leaves thereof, and environ therewith a serpent and fire together within, the serpent will chuse rather to goe into the fire, than to flie from it to the leaves of the ash. A wonderfull goodnesse of dame Nature, that the Ash doth bloome and flourish alwaies before that serpents come abroad; and never sheddeth leaves, but continueth green, untill they be retired into their holes, and hidden within the ground.

Chap. XIIII.

Of the Line or Linden tree, two sorts thereof.

Great difference there is every way between the male and female Linden tree: for, the wood of the male is hard and knottie, of a redder colour also, and more odoriferous than the female. The barke moreover is thicker, and when it is plucked from the tree, it is stiffe, and will not bend. It beareth neither seed nor flower, as the female doth: which also is rounder and bigger in bodie, and the wood is whiter and more faire and beautifull by farre than is the male. A strange thing it is to consider, that ther eis no living creature in the world will touch the fruit of the Linden tree, and yet the juice both of the leafe and barke is sweet ynough. Betwen the barke and the wood of this tree thre bee thin pellicles or skins lying in so many folds together, whereof are made bands and cords called Bazen19 ropes. The finest of these pellicles or membranes served in old time for to make the labels and ribbands belonging to chaplets, and it was reputed a great honour to weare such. The timber of the Linden or Tillet tree will never be worm-eaten. f The tree it self is nothing tall, but of a meane height, howbeit the wood is very commodious.

Chap. XV.

Ten kinds of the Maple tree.

The Maple in bignesse is much about the Linden tree: the wood of it is very fine and beautifull, in which regard, it may bee raunged in the second place, and next to the very Citron tree. Of Maples there bee many kinds: to wit, the white, and that is exceeding faire and bright indeed, growing about Piemont in Itlaie, beyond the river Po, and also beyond the Alps, and this is called the French Maple. A second kind there is, which hath a curled graine running to and fro with diverse spots; the more excellent worke whereof, resembling the eies in the Peacockes taile, thereupon tooke also the name. And for this rare and singular wood, the countries of Istria and Rhætia bee cheefe. As for that which hath a thicke and great graine, it is called Crassivenium of the Latines, and is counted to bee of a baser kind. The Greekes distinguish Maples by the diverse places where they grow. For that of the champion or plaine countrey (which they name Glinon) is white, and nothing crisped: contrariwise, the wood of the mountaine Maple is harder and more curled, and namely, the male of that sort, and therefore it is in great request for most exquisite and sumptuous workes. A third sort they name Zygia, which hath a reddish wood, and the same easie to cleave: with a barke of a swert colour, and rough in handling. Others would have it to be no Maple, but rather a tree by it selfe, and in Latine they call it Carpinus.

Chap. XVI.

Of the Bosses, Wennes, and Nodasities, called Bruscum and Melluscum. of the wild Fisticke or Bladder nut-tree called Staphylodendron: also three kinds of the Box-tree.

The bunch or knurre in the Maple, called Bruscum, is passing faire, but yet that which is named Molluscum, excelleth it. Both the one and the other swell like a wen out of the Maple. As for the Bruscum, it is curled & twined after a more crawling and winding manner: whereas the Molluscum is spread with a more direct and streight course of the graine. And certes, if there might be plankes hereof found, broad ynough to make tables, doubtlesse they would be esteemed and preferred before those of the Citron wood. But now it serveth only for writing tables, for painels also and thin bords in wainescot work, to set out beds heads and seelings, and such are seldome seene. As for Bruscum, there bee tables made of it, inclining to a blackish colour. Moreover, there be found in Alder trees, such nodosities; but not so good as those, by how much the wood of the Alder it selfe is inferiour to the Maple, for beautie and costlinesse. The male Maples doe put forth leaves and flourish before the female, Yea, and those which grow upon drie grounds, are ordinarily better esteemed than those of moist and waterish places, in like sort as the Ashes.

Beyond the alpes there is a kind of Bladder nut-tree, whereof the wood is very like unto the white Maple, and the name of it is Staphylodendron. It beareth certaine cods, and within the same, kernels in tast like the Filberd or Hazel nut.

Now for the Box tree, the wood thereof is in as great request as the very best: seldome hath it any graine crisped damaske wise, and never but about the root, the which is dudgin and full of worke. For otherwise the grain runneth streight and even without any waving: the wood is sad ynough and weightie: for the hardnesse thereof, and pale yellow colour, much set by and right commendable. As for the tree it selfe, gardeners use to make arbours, borders, and curious works thereof. Three sorts there be of the Box tree: the first is called the French boxe, it groweth taperwise, sharpe and pointed in the top, and runneth up to a more than ordinarie height. The second is altogther wild, and they name it Oleastrum, good for no use at all; and besides carieth a strong and stinking savor with it. The third is our Italian Boxe, and so called. Of a savage kind I take this to be also: howbeit, by setting and replanting, brought to a gentle nature. This spreadeth and brancheth more broad and herewith a man shall see the borders and partitions of quarters in a garden, growing thicke and greene all the year long, and kept orderly with cutting and clipping. Great store of box trees are to be seene upon the Pyrenæan hils, the Cytorian mountaines, and the whole Berecynthian tract. The thickest and biggest Box-trees be in Corsica, and they beare a lovely and amiable flower, which is the cause, that the honie of that Island is so bitter. There is not a beast that will eat the fruit or graine thereof. The Boxes of Olympus in Macedonie, are more slender than the rest, and but low of growth. This tree loveth cold grounds, yet lying upon the Sunne. The wood is as hard to burne as yron: it will neither flame nor burne cleare it selfe, nor serve to make charcole of.

Chap. XVII.

Of the elme, foure kinds.

Between these wild trees abovesaid, and those that beare fruit, the Elme is reckoned of a middle nature, in regard of the wood and timber that it dooth affoord, as also of the friendship and acquaintance that it hath with Vines. The Greekes acknowledge two sorts thereof: namely, the one of the mountaines, which is the taller and bigger: and the other of the plaine and champion; which is the rather more like a shrub, the branches that it shooteth foorth are so small and slender. In Italie men hold the Elmes about Atiniam to bee the tallest, and of those they preferre them which grow in drie grounds, and have no water comming to them, before those by riversides. A second sort of them, which are not allone so great, they call the French Elmes. The third kind be Italian elmes, thicker growne with leaves than the rest, and those proceeding in greater number from one stemme. In the fourth place bee raunged the wild elmes. The Atinian Elmes abovesaid beare no Samara (for so they call the seed or graine of the Elme). All the kind of them are planted of sets taken from the roots, whereas others come of seeds.

Chap. XVIII.

The nature of trees, as touching the place where they grow.

Having thus discoursed in particular of the most famous and noble trees that are, I think it not amisse to say somewhat of their natures in generall. And first to begin with the mountain high countries: the Cedar, the Larch, and the Torch-tree love to grow among the hils; like as all the rest that engender rosin: semblably, the Holly, the Boxe-tree, the Mast-holme, the Iuniper, the Terebinth, the Poplar, the wild Ash Ornus, the Cornell tree, and the Carpin. Upon the great hill Apenine there is a shrub named Cotinus, with a red or purple wood, most excellent for inlaid workes in Marquetrie. As for Firres, the wild hard Okes (Robora), Chestnut-trees, Lindens, Mast-holmes, and Cornell trees, they can away with hils and valleys indifferently. The Maple, the Ash, the Servis tree, the Linden and the Cherry-tree, delight in the mountaines neare to waters. Lightly a man shall not see upon any hill, Plum-trees, Pomgranata trees, wild Olives, Walnut-trees, Mulberrie trees, and Elders. And yet the Cornell tree, the Harell, the common Oke, the wild Ash, the Maple, the ordinarie Ash, the Beech, and the Carpin, are many times found to come downe into the plaines: like as the elme, the Aple tree, the Peare tree, the Bay tree, the Myrtle, the Bloud shrubs, the Holme, and the Broome (which naturally is so good for to die clothes) doe as often climbe up the mountaines. The Servis tree gladly groweth in cold places: so doth the Birch, and more willingly of the twaine. This is a tree which is meere French, and came first out of Fraunce: it sheweth wonderfull white, and hath as fine and small branches or twigs, which are so terrible to the offenders, as wherewith the Magistrats rods are made for to execute justice. And yet the wood of this tree is passing good for hoopes, so pliable it is & easie to bend: the twigs thereof draw a glutinous and clammie slime in manner of Bitumen. In the same quarters there loveth to grow for companie the white thorn, which in old times they were wont to burne for torches at weddings, and it was thought to be the most fortunat and luckie light that could be devised, because (as Massurius doth report) the Romane sheepheards and heardmen who ravished the Sabine maidens, were furnished every one with a branch thereof, to make them torches. But now adaies the Carpine and the Hazell are commonly used for such nuptiall lights. The Cypresse, Walnut, Chestnut trees, and the Laburnum, cannot in any wise abide waters. This last named, is a tree proper unto the Alpes, not commonly knowne: the wood thereof is hard and white: it beareth a blossome of a cubite long, but Bees will not settle upon it. The plant likewise called Iovis Barba, so handsome to bee cut in arbours and gardens hateth waterie places. Contrariwise, Willowes, Alders, Poplars & Ossiars, and the Privet which is so good for to make dice, will not grow well and prosper but in moist grounds. Also the Vacinia or Whortles, set and sowed in Italie for the fowlers to catch birds withall; but in France for the purple colour, wherewith they use to die cloths for their servants and slaves.

To conclude, this is a generall rule, What trees whatsoever will grow indifferently as well upon hils as plaines, arise to taller, bigger & carie a fairer head to see to in the low champion grounds: but timber is better, and carieth a more beautifull grain upon the mountaines, except onely Apple-trees and Pyrries.

Chap. XIX.

A division of trees, according to their generall kinds.

Moreover some trees loose their leaves: others continue alwaies green. And yet there is another difference of trees before this, and whereupon it dependeth. For trees there be which are altogether wild and savage: there be again which ar emore gentle and civil: and these names me thinkes are very apt to distinguish them. Those trees therefore which are so kind and familiar unto us, as to serve our turns either with their fruit which they bear, or shade which they yeeld, or any other vertue or property that they have, may be very aptly and fitly be called civill and domesticall.

Chap. XX.

Of trees that never shed their leaves: also of Rhododendron.

Among these trees and plants which are of the gentle kind, the Olive, the Lawrell, the Date tree, Myrtle, Cypresse, Pines, Ivie, and the Oleander, loose not their leaves. As for the Oleander, although it bee called the Sabine hearb, yet it commeth from the Greekes, as may appeare by the name Rhododendron. Some have called it Nerion; others Rhododaphne: it continueth alwaies green leafed, beareth floures like roses, and brancheth very thicke. Hurtfull it is and no better than poison, to Horses, Asses, Mules, Goats, and Sheepe; and yet unto man it serveth for a countrepoyson, and cureth the venom of serpents.

Chap. XXI.

What trees shed not their leaves at all: which they be that lose them but in part: and in what countries all trees are ever greene.

Of the wild sort, the Fir, the Larch, the wilde Pine, the Iuniper, the Cedar, the Terebinth, the Box tree, the Mast-holme, the Holly, the Cork tree, the Yew, and the Tamariske, be green all the yeare long. Of a middle nature betweene these two kinds above named, are the Adrachne in Greece, and the Arbut or Strawberry tree in all countries: for these lose the leaves of their water boughs, but are ever green in the head. Among the shrubs kind also there is a certain bramble and Cane or Reed, which is never without leaves. In the territorie of Thurium in Calabria, where somtime stood the city Sybaris, within the prospect from the said Citie, there was an Oke above the rest to be seen, alwaies green and ful of leaves, and never began to bud new before Midsummer: where by the way I marvel not a little, that the Greek writers delivered thus much of that tree in writing, and our countreymen afterwards have not written a word thereof. But true it is, that great power there is in the clymat, insomuch as about Memphis in Egypt, and Elephantine in the territories of Thebais, there is not a tree, not so much as the very Vine, that sheddeth leaves.

Chap. XXII.

The nature of such leaves as fall from trees: and what leaves they be that change colour.

All trees without the range of those before rehearsed (for to reckon them up by name particularly were a long and tedious piece of work) do lose their leaves in winter. And verily this hath bin found and obseved by experience, that no leaves doe fade and wither, but such as be thinne, broad, and soft. As for such as fall not from the tree, they be commonly thick skinned, hard, and narrow: and therefore it is a false principle and position held by some, That no trees shed their leaves which have in them a fatty sap or oleous humiditie: for who could ever perceive such thing in the Mast-holme? a drier tree there is not ,and yet it holdeth alwaies green. Timæus (the great Astrologer and Mathematician) is of opinion, that the Sun being in the signe Scorpio, he causeth the leaves to fall, by a certain venomous and poysoned infection of the aire, proceeding from the influence of that maligne constellation. But if that were true, we may wel and iustly marvell, why the same cause should not be effectuall likewise in all trees. Moreover, we see that most trees do let fall their leaves in Autumne: & some are longer ere they shed, continuing green untill winter be come. Neither is the timely or slow fall of the leafe long of the early or late budding: for wee see some that burgen and shoot out their spring with the first, and yet with the last shed their leaves and become naked: as namely the Almond trees, Ashes, and Elders. And contrariwise the Mulberry tree putteth forth leaves with the latest, and is one of them that soonest sheddeth them again. But the cause hereof lies much in the nature of the soile: for the trees that grow upon a leane, dry, and hungry ground, do sooner cast leafe than others: also old trees become bare before yonger; and many of them also lose their leaves before their fruit be fully ripe: for in the Fig tree, that commeth and beareth late, in the winter Pyrry, and Pomegranate, a man shall see in the later end of the yere fruit only, and no leaves upon the tree. Now as touching those trees that continue ever greene, you must not think that they keep still the same leaves, for as new come, the old wither & fal away: which hapneth commonly in mid-Iune about the Summer Sunne-stead. For the most part, the leaves in every kind of tree do hold one and the same colour, and continue uniform, save those of the Poplar, Ivy, and Croton, which wee said20 was called also Cici [id est, Ricinus, or Palma Christi.]

Chap. XXIII.

Three sorts of Poplar: and what leaves they be that change their shape and figure.

Of Poplars there be found three sundry kinds, to wit, the white, the blacke, and that which is named g Lybica, or the Poplar of Guynee: this hath least leaves, and those of all other blackest; but most commendable they are for the fungous meazles (as it were) that come forth thereof. As for the white Poplar leafe, it is of two colours; the upperside is whitish, the nether parts are greene. Both of it, and of the black Poplar, the leaves when they be young, are as round as if they were drawne with a paire of compasses, like unto those of Croton before-named: but as they grow elder, they run out into certaine angles or corners. Contrariwise, the Ivy leaves at the first be cornered, and afterwards become round. All Poplar leaves are full of downe: as for the white Poplar (which is fuller of leaves than the rest) the said downe flieth away in the aire like to mossie chats or Thistle-downe. The leaves of Pomegranats and Almond trees stand much upon the red colour. But very strange it is and wonderfull which hapneth to the Elme, Tillet, or Linden, the Olive tree, Aspe, and Sallow or Willow: for their leaves after midsummer, turne about upside downe, in such sort, as there is not a more certaine argument that the sunne is entred Cancer, and returneth from the South point or summer Tropicke, than to see those leaves so turned.

Chap. XXIIII.

What leaves that be that use to turne every yeere. Of Palme or Date tree leaves, how they are to be ordered and used. Also certaine wonderfull obesrvations about leaves.

There is a certain generall and universall diversitieb & difference observed in the very leaf: for commonly the upper side which is from the ground, is of greene grasse colour, more smooth also & polished. The outside or nether part of the leaf hath in it certain strings, sinues or veins, brawns and ioynts, bearing out like as in the back part of a mans hand: but the inside cuts or lines in maner of the palme of ones hand. The leaves of the olive are on the upper part whiter and lesse smooth; and likewise of the Ivy. But the leaves of all trees for most part, every day do turn and open to the Sunne, as desirous to have the inner side warmed therewith. The outward or nether side toward the ground of all leaves, hath a certaine hoary downe more or lesse here in Italy, but in other countries so much there is of it, that it serveth the turn for wooll or cotton.21 In the East parts of the world they make good cordage and strong ropes of date tree leaves (as we have said before22) and the same are better, & serve longer within than without. With us these Date leaves are pulled from the tree in the Spring, whiles they are whole and entire; for he better be they which are not cloven or divided. Being thus plucked, they are laid a drying within house foure daies together. After that, they be spred abroad and displaied open to the Su, and left without dores to take all weathers both day and night, and to be bleached, untill they be dry and white: which done, they be slived and slit for cord-work. But to come again to other leaves, the broadest are upon the Fig-tree, the Vine, and the Plane; the narrowest upon the Myrtle, Pomegranat, and Olive: as for those of the Pine and cedar, they be hairy: the Holly leaves and all the kindes of Holme be set with sharpe prickes. As for the Iuniper, in stead of leafe it hath a very pointed thorne. The Cypresse and Tamariske carrie fleshie leaves: those of the Alder be most thick of all other. The Reed and the Willow have long leaves: the Date tree hath them double. The leaves of the Peare tree are round, but those of the Apple tree are pointed; of the Ivie cornered: of the Plane tree divided into certaine incisions; of the Pitch tree and the Fir cut in, after the manner of comb-teeth; of the wild hard Oke, waved and indented round about the edges; of the brier and bramble, sharpe like thornes all the skin over. Of some, they be stinging and biting, as of Nettles: of others, readie to pricke like pins or needles, as of the Pine, the Pitch tree, the Larch, the Firre, the Cedar, and all the sorts of Holly. The leaves of the Olive tree, and the mast-Holme, hang by a short stele, the Vine leaves by a long. The Poplar or Aspen leaves doe shake and tremble, and they alone keepe a whistling and rustling noise one with another. Moreover, in the very fruit it selfe, and namely in a certaine kind of Apples, ye shall have small leaves breake out of the very sides in the mids, in some single, in others double and two togither. Furthermore, there bee trees that have their leaves comming forth about their boughs and branches, others at the very end and shoot of the twig: as for the wild oke Robur, it putteth leaves forth of the trunke and maine stocke. Over and besides, the leaves grow thicker or thinner in some than in others; but alwaies the broad and large leaves, are more thin than others. In the Myrtle tree, the leaves grow in order by rankes; those of the box tree turne hollow; but in the Apple trees they are set in no order at all. In Pyrries and Apple trees both, yee shall see ordinarily many leaves put forth at one bud, hangingat one and the same taile. The Elme, and the Tree-trifolie, are full of small and littel braunches. Cato addeth moreover and saith, That such as fall from the Poplar or Oke, may bee given as fodder to beasts, but he willeth that they be not over drie: and he saith expressely, that for kine and oxen, Fig leaves, mast-Holme levaes, and Ivie, are good fodder: yea and such kind of beasts may well brouse and feed of Reed leaves and Bay leaves.23 Finally, the Service tree looseth her leaves all at once, others shed them by little and little one after another. And thus much for the leaves of trees.

Chap. XXV.

The order and course observed by Nature as touching plants and trees, in their conception, flowring, budding, knotting, and fructifying. Also in what orderr they put forth their blossoms.

The manner and order of Nature yeare by yeare, holdeth in this wise: first, trees and plants doe conceive by the means of the Westerne wind Favonius, which commonly beginneth to blow about sixe daies before the Ides of Februarie: for this wind is in stead of an husband to all things that grow out of the earth, and of it they desire naturally to be conceived, like as the Mares in Spaine, of which we have written heretofore.24 This wind is that spirit of generation which doth breath life into all the world; which Latines call thereupon Favonius, à favendo, [i. of cherishing and nourishing everything] as some have thought. It bloweth directly from the Æquinoctiall Sun-setting, and evermore beginneth the Spring. this time, our rusticall peasants call the Seasoning, when as Nature seemeth to goe proud or assaut, and is in the rut and furious rage of love, desirous to conceive by this wind, which indeed doth vivifie and quicken all plants and seeds sowne in the ground. Now are they said to bring forth to be delivered, when the Spring they bloome, and that blossome breaketh foorth of certaine matrices or ventricles. After this, they become nources all the while they cherish & bring up the fruit: and this time also the Latines call Germinatio, [i. the breeding season.] When trees are full of blossomes, it is a signe that the Spring is at the heigth, and the yeare become new againe. the blossome, is the very joy of trees, and therein standeth their chiefe felicitie: then they shew themselves fresh and new, as if they were not the same; then be they in their gay coats; then it seemeth they strive avie one with another in varietie of colours, which of them should excell and exceed in beautifull hew. But this is not generall, for many of them are denied this pleasure, and enjoy not this delight: for all trees blossome not: some are of an heavie and sad countenance, neither cheare they at the comming of this new season, and gladsome Spring: for the mast Holme, the Pitch tree, the Larch, and the Pine, doe not bloome at all, they are not arrayed in their robes, they have not their liveries of divers colours to fore-signifie (as messengers and vantcourriers) the arrivall of the new yeare, or to welcome and solemnize the birth of new fruits. The Figge trees likewise both tame and wild, make no shew of flowers: for they are not to soone bloomed (if they bloome at all) but they bring forth their fruit. And a wonderful thing it is to see what abortive fruit these Figge-trees have, and how it never commeth to ripenesse. Neither doe the Iunipers bloome at all. And yet some writers there be who make two kinds thereof: and they say, that the one doth flower, and beare no fruit: as for the other which doth not blossome, it brings forth fruit upon fruit, and berie upon berie, which hang two yeers upon the tree before they come to maturitie. But this is false, for in verie truth all Iunipers without exception, have evermore a sad looke, and at no time shew merie. and this is the case and condition of verily many a man, whose fortune is never in the flower nor maketh outward shew to the world. Howbeit there is not a tree but it buddeth, even those that never blossom: And herein the diversitie of the soile is of great power: for in one and the same kind, such as grow in marish grounds, do shoot and spring first; next to them, those of the plains; and last of all they of the woods & forrests. And generally the wild Pyrries growing in woods do bud later than any other. At the first comming of the westerne wind Favonius, the Cornell tree doth bud; next to it, the Bay; and somwhat before mid-March or the spring Æquinoctiall, the Tillet or Linden, and the Maple, The Poplar, Elme, Willow, Alder, and Filberds or Hazell nut trees, bud with the first. P98 The Palme also maketh hast and is loth to come behind. All the rest at the point and prime of the spring, namely the Holly, the Terebinth, the Paliurus, the Cheston, and the Walnut-trees, or Mast-trees.h Appletrees are late ere they bud, but the Corke tree longest of any other. Trees there be that put forth bud upon bud, by reason that either the soile is exceedingly battil and fat, or else the weather fair and pleasant: and this hapneth more to be seen in the blades of corne. But trees if they happen to be over ranck in new shoots and buds, they wax wearie and grow out of heart.

Moreover, some trees there be that naturally doe sprout at other seasons besides the spring, according to the influence of certaine starres, whereof the reason shall be rendered more conveniently, in the third booke next ensuing after this.25 Meane time this would bee observed, That the winter spring of treesis about the rising of the Ægle-star: the Summer budding at the rise of the Dog-star: and a third, when the star Arcturus is up. And for the latter twaine, some would have them to be common verily to all trees, but most evidently seen, in Fig-trees, Vines, Pomgranate trees: and they yeeld a cause, For that in Thessalie and Macedonie the Fig tree about these times putteth forth most plenteously; & in Ægypt this reason is to be seen most apparently. As for all other trees, certain it is, that when they begin once to bud, they hold on and shoot forward continually without intermission. The wild Oke, the Fir, and the Larch tree, have their severall shoots in one yeere, and spring at three sundry times, giving over betweene whiles; and therefore they put forth their sprouts between the skales of their barks: a thing usually hapning to all trees in their budding & breeding time; for after they be once conceived, their rind or bark doth burst withall. Now their first budding is in the prime and beginning of the spring, and continueth much about fifteene dayes. They bud a second time in the moneth of May when the sun passeth through the sign Gemini: by which time it is evidently to be seen, how the bud heads that came first, are driven and thrust up higher by those that follow after; and that appeareth more plainly by the encrease of the k nots and joynts. As for the third budding, it is very short, namely at midsommer,i and lasteth not above a seven-night: and even then also may a man perceive manifestly by the knots and joynts of the shoots how much they are put forth and grown. The Vine alone shooteth twice, to wit, when she first beginneth to burgen and put forth a grape; and a second time, when she doth forme and digest or concoct the same. As for those trees that blossome not, they have no more to do but only to bring forth their fruit, and so proceed to ripen it. Now there are some trees, which no sooner bud, but they shew also a blossome; and yet as hasty as they be that way, they take their leisure afterwards, and long it is ere their fruit come to be ripe: and such are the Vines. Others againe bee as backward and slow both to bud and blossome; but they make speed to ripen their fruit, as the Mulberie tree, which of civile and domesticall trees, is the last that doth bud, and never before all the cold weather is past; and therefore she is called the wisest tree of all others: but after that she begins once to put forth buds, she dispatcheth her business out of hand, insomuch as in one night she hath done; and that with such a force, that in the breaking forth a man may evidently heare a noise. Of those trees which do conceive in winter, about the rising of the Ægle-star, (as we have sayd before) the Almond tree is the first that doth blossome in the moneth of Ianuarie, and by March the Almond is ripe. The that blossome after it, be the Peach-plum trees of Armenia, then the Iujube trees called Tuberes, and the Abricots.26 As touching those former, they be meere straungers, but these Abricots are force by Art and industrie of man. As for the wild and savage trees, by course of nature the Elder flowreth first, and hath of all other most plentie of pith or marow within, wheras the male Corneil hath none at all. But of domesticall and civile trees, the Apple tree beginneth to blossome, and soone after the Pyrry, Cherrie tree, and Plu tree, insomuch as they seeme all to floure togither. Next to them, is the Lawrell; anon after it, the Cypresse; and then the Pomegranat, and the Fig tree: Vines and Olive trees doe but the burgen and bud, when those other be in their flowre: for in truth they conceive late, namely, at the rising of the Vergiliæ or Broodhen; for this is the proper star to the influence whereof these trees be subject: and it is Iune first and the summer Sun-stead, before the vine doth bloome; and so it is with the Olive tree, but that it commeth somewhat later. All trees be seven daies at the least in their blosoming; and some are longer ere they give ove, but none passe a fortnight: and done they have ever by the eigth day before the Ides of Iuly, which are the fore-runners of the Etesian winds. Finally, some trees there are which doe not knit or shew their fruit immediatly upon their blooming.

Chap. XXVI.

Of the Corneil tree. Also, what is the proper time wherein every tree beareth: which trees be they that beare not, and which be reputed unluckie. Also of those trees which soonest lose their fruit. Last of all, what trees shew fruit before leafe.

As for the Corneil tree, it is about midsummer or the summer Sun-stead, before it putteth forth any fruit, which at first is white, afterwards red as bloud. But the female of this kind beareth after Autumne, sowre berries, and such as no beast will abide to tast. The wood thereof also is spungeous, hollow, and good for nothing; whereas that of the male is counted among the hardest that be: so great difference there is in trees of one and the same kind. Moreover, the Terebinth, Maple, and Ash, yeeld their fruit or seed in harvest time: Walnuts, Apples, and Peares (unlesse they be ome winter fruits, or of the hastie kind) ordinarily are readie to be gathered in the Autumne. As for certain Apple trees and Peare trees both, as also the Corke tree, their fruit is not to be gathered before winter begin. The Firre putteth foorth a blossome of a yellow colour like Saffron, about mid-Iune or the summer sun-stead; but the Broodhen-starre is downe before the fruit be ripe. The Pine, and Pitch tree, do bud before the Firre some fifteen daies, or thereabout; but it is winter first, and the foresaid Vergiliæ or Brood-hen is likewise set, before their fruit is ripe. Citron trees, Iunipers, and mast-Holmes, are counted trees that beare all the yeare long, and the old fruits of the former yeare tarieth on the tree untill new come, and they hang both togither. But above all other trees, the Pine is a wonder in nature; for a man shall ever find upon it some of the fruit readie to be ripe; and some againe that will remaine unto the next yeare, and the third yeare before it will be readie: and there is not another tree that is more forward and greedie (as it were) to put foorth it selfe, and give greater hope of encrease, than it doth: for look in what moneth soever the Pine-nuts are gathered from the tree, in the very same moneth a man shall have ripe fruit upon her. Those Pine-apples or nuts which cleave and upon upon the tree, bee called Zamiæ;27 and well may they be so named, for unlesse they be plucked, they hurt and corrupt the rest. The only trees that beare no fruite at all, that is to say, not so much as seed, are these; the Tamariske, good for nothing but to make beesoms of; the Poplar, Alder, Atinian Elme, and the Alaternus, which hath leaves resembling the Holme, and partly the Olive. As for such trees which neither at any time are set or planted, nor yet beare fruit, they bee holden for unfortunate, accursed, and condemned, in such sort, as there is no use of them in any sacrifice or religious service. Cremetius writeth, That the (Almond) tree whereon ladie Phyllis hanged her selfe, had never (after) greene leaves on it. Such trees as yeeld gum, after they have put forth their bud, do cleave and open: howbeit the gum that issueth out,, never commeth to any thicknesse, untill the fruit thereof be gathered. Yong trees commonly beare not, so long as they shoot and grow. The Date tree, the Fig tree, the Almond tree, the Apple tree, and the Pyrrie, doe soonest of all other let their fruit fall before it be fully ripe. Semblably, the Pomegranate tree, which is so tender besides, that with every thicke and heavie dew, white frost, and fogge rime, she will be bitten and shed the blossom: which is the cause that folk use to bend the boughs thereof downward to the ground, that both dew and rime may sooner fall off which lighteth upon them, and otherwise would over-load and hurt them. The Pyrrie and Almond tree cannot abide close and cloudie weather, especially if the wind be Southerly, although no raine doe fall: for in such daies, if they chaunce to blossome, they not only shed their flower, but loose their fruit new knit. But the Sallow or Withie tree, is of all other most ticklish, & soonest doth forgoe the seed or chats that it beareth before it commeth to any ripenesse: for which cause, called it is of Homerj Loose-fruit, or Spill-fruit. Howbeit the age ensuing (naught as it was) hath interpreted that Epithet of his, in another sense, according to the wicked experience they had of it, whereby it was found, that the seed thereof causeth barrainnessse in women, and hindreth conception. But in this regard, Nature also hath done well to prevent this mischiefe and inconvenience, in that shee hath not been very carefull to preserve the seed: and yet for the maintenance of the whole kind, shee hath endued it with this gift, to grow very quickly, if a man doe pricke into the ground but a cutting or twig thereof. And yet (by report) there is one Willow in Candie, and namely about the very descent of Iupiters cave, which is wont ordinarily to carie the graine or seed thereof untill it be full ripe, and then is it of a rough and writhen shape, of a wooden and hard substance, and withall, of the bignesse of a cich pease.

Moreover, some trees there be that proove barraine and fruitlesse by occason of the imperfection of the soile and territorie where they grow: and namely in the Isle Paros, there is a whole wood or coppise that usually is lopt and cut, but it never beareth any fruit. The Peach trees in the Island Rhodos blossome only, and otherwise are fruitlesse. Over and besides, this difference of trees (that some be fruitfull and others barrain) ariseth of the sex also; for commonly the males beare not: howsoever some affirme cleane contrarie, and say, They are the male onely which be fruitfull, and the female barraine. Furthermore, it falleth out many times that trees be fruitlesse, either because they grow too thicke one by another, or els are overcharged and too ranke with boughs and braunches: but of such as doe beare, some bring forth their fruit both at the sides, and also at the very tips and ends of their braunches; as the Peare tree, Pomegranat tree, Figge tree, and Myrtle. As for others, they are of the nature of corne and pulse; for the one groweth in the eare or spike alone, the others by the sides, and not otherwise. The Date tree onely (as hath been said before)28 conteineth fruit within certain pellicles, and the same hangeth down in clusters after the manner of grapes. Other trees beare their fruit under the leafe for their safeguard and defence, except the Fig tree, which hath her Figs above the leafe, because it is so large and overshadowie. Moreover, the leafe of the Figge tree commeth forth after the Figge. One notable thing is reported of a kind of Figge trees, in Cilicia, Cyprus, and Hellas, to wit, that they have this propertie singular by themselves, To bring foorth their perfect Figs under leafe, and their greene abortive Figs that come to no proof, after the leafe. The Figge tree beareth moreover certaine hastie Figs, which the Athenians call Prodromos, i. vant-couriers or forerunners, because they be long ripe before others. The Laconian Figge trees bring the fairest and greatest Figs.

Chap. XXVII.

Of trees that beare twice and thrice in one yeere. Also what trees soonest wax old: and of their ages.

In the same countries above-named, there be Figge trees also that beare Figges twice in one year. And in the Iland Cea, the wild Figge trees beare thrice in the same yeare: for the second encrease is put foorth upon the first, and the third upon the second: and by this third fruit, the Figgest of the same Figge tree receive their maturitie by way of caprification: and those wild greene Figgs of theirs come foorth above the leafe. Moreover, there be some Pyrries and Apple trees that bring forth fruit twice in a yeere: as also there bee others of the hastie kind, which beare both Peares and Apples betimes in the yeare. There is a kind of Crab tree also or Wilding, that in the like manner beareth twice a yeere; and the latter fruit is ripe presently after the midest of September, especially in places lying well upon the Sunne. As touching Vines, there bee of them also, that after a sort beare three times in the yeare, which thereupon men call Insanas, [i. the mad or foolish vines:] for whiles some of the grapes bee ripe, others begin to swell and waxe big, and a third sort gaine are but then in the flower. M. Varro writeth, that in Smyrna by the sea side29 there was a Vine which bare fruit twice a yeare, as also an Apple-tree in the territorie of Consentia. But this is an ordinarie thing throughout all the countrey about Tacapa in Affrica, and never is it seene otherwise there, so fertile is the soile; but thereof will we write more at large hereafter in another place.30 As for the Cypresse trees, they faile not but come with fruit thrice in one yeare: and their Berries bee gathered in Ianuarie,, May, and September, and all of a diverse bignesse, one from the other. Over and besides, the very trees themselves are not laden with fruit after one and the same manner: for the Arbut or Strawberrie tree is more plenteous in the head, & toward the top: the Oke, the Walnut-tree, Fig-tree (and namely that which beareth the unsavourie great figges Mariscæ) are more fruitfull beneath. Generally, all trees the elder they are, the sooner they beare and make more hast to ripen their fruit; the rather also, if they grow in a ground leane and exposed to the Sun. Contrariwise, trees that bee wild are later in bearing than other: and some of them never yeeld fruit fully ripe. Moreover, such trees under which the ground is tilled and laid hollow, have their fruit sooner ripe, and more fruitfull withall, than those that are neglected and not looked unto. Besides all this, there is a difference in trees as touching bearing their fruit, according to the age: for the Almond tree and the Pyrrie are most fertile when they be old, as also Mast trees, & a certaine kind of Fig-trees. All others, the younger they are, the more fruitfull they be, howbeit, later it is ere their fruit bee ripe: a thing most plainely to bee observed in Vines. For the better wine commeth from the elder vines: but more plentie from the younger. As for the Apple-tree, it becommeth of all others soonest old, and in that age the fruit is nothing so good as in the youth: for both lesser be the Apples, and also more worme-eaten, insomuch as the very worms will breed in them upon the tree. The fig is the fruit alone of all trees, that needeth some helpe of Physicke to ripen.k And this may be noted for a strange and miraculous thing in them, that the latter figs be in more price than the hastie and early ripe, and that there should bee more reckoning made of preposterous and artificiall things beside the course of kind, than of the naturall. Also, this is a generall rule, Whatsoever tree is exceeding fruitfull, and beareth most, the same continueth least while, and soone waxeth old. Yea, and some of them are to be seene for to die right out, and that very quickly, because they enjoied so favourable a season, to cause them so to spend themselves with bearing; as we may marke most easily in Vines.

Chap. XXVIII.

Of the Mulberrie tree.

Contrariwise, the Mulberrie tree lasteth long, and is very late ere it seemeth old. For why? it is not given greatly to beare fruit, neither is overloden with Mulberries. To conclude, looke what trees have a curles graine in the wood, as the Maple, Date-tree, and Poplar, they continue a long time before they decay. And in one word, such as have their roots digged or delved often and laid bare about, are not long lived, but soone age and decay.

Chap. XXIX.

Of wild trees.

As for wild trees, they endure longest of all others. And generally, as carefull tending and looking to trees, maketh them more fertile: so there is nothing sooner bringeth age upon them, than fruitfulnesse and much bearing. Hereupon it is likewise, that such trees both bud and also blossome sooner than others, yea, and ordinarily their fruit is ripe before the rest: in regard whereof, they are more subject to the injurie of time and the weather, which causeth also divers and sundrie infirmities. Moreover, as wee have said alreadie in the chapter of Mast-trees, there be many that bringeth forth fruits of different sorts: among which may be reckoned the Lawrell, with her variable flowers and Berries growing so thicke; and principally the barren of that kind, which beareth nothing else, and therefore is esteemed of some the male. The Hazels also and Filbard trees, besides, their nuts doe carie certaine chats with a callous substance of skales joined one within another, but good for nothing.

Chap. XXX.

Of the Box-tree: the Greeke Beane or the Lotus.

l Among these is to be raunged the Box-tree, which bringeth forth the most varietie of all others. For it putteht forth a seed of her owne, also, a graine which they call Carthegon: besides, on the North side Misselto, and on the South Hyphear: whereof wee will write anone more at large:31 so that otherwhiles a man shall find foure divers things upon Boxe altogether.

Moreover of trees, some be simple or single, to wit, such as from the root have one trunke or bodie, and yet many boughes and braunches; as the Olive, Fig-tree, and the Vine: others be of a shrubs kind, and put forth many shoots from the root besides the maine trunke, as the Rhamne-thorne Paliurus, and the Myrtle. In like manner the Hazell nut-tree. Howbeit, the better is the tree and more plenteous in fruit, when it is well braunched from the bodie, and hath not those suckers from the root. Yee shall find some againe that have no principall stocke at all, as we may see in a kind of Boxe, and a certaine Lotus beyond sea. Others be forked in twain, yea, in five, immediately from the root: and yee shal meet with those that put up many trunkes out of the earth, but braunch not into boughes, as namely, the Elders; as also with others that forke not, nor are devided at all, howbeit, they be full of armes and boughes, as the Pitch-trees. Moreover, some there be which have their boughs disposed in good order, as the Pitch-tree, Firre, or Deale: others againe be disorderly, as the Oke, Apple-tree, and Pyrrie. As for the Firre verily, where it is devided into boughs, they grow directly upright unto heaven, & spread not in breadth about the sides. But a strange and wonderous thing it is of this tree, that if it bee headed, or the tops onely of those armes cut off, the whole dieth thereupon: but if they bee lopped off close to the bodie, it continueth still alive. Nay, in case it be cut under the place where the braunches put forth, the stocke or stumpe that is left, will take no harme by it, but remaine and live: crop the head onely thereof, and the whole tree dieth. To proceed, some trees spread into armes immediately from the root, as the Elme, others branch onely toward the top, as the Pine, and the Greek beane, which at Rome for the pleasant tast of the fruit, resembling cherries very much, although it be of a wild nature, they call Lotus.32 This tree is much planted about faire houses, in the court yards, especially because the boughs spread so large; for albeit the stock or bodie it selfe bee but very short and small, yet it brancheth so, as that it yeeldeth much shade: yea, and oftentimes the boughs reach to the neighbour housen. But there is not a tree againe that maintaineth this shade a lesse while: for when Winter is once come, the leaves shed, and then it admitteth the warme Sunne for it. Morever, there is not another tree that beareth a fairer barke, nor more pleasant to the eie, nor that carieth either longer boughs, and more in number than it, or stronger: a man that seeth them, would say they were so many trees by themselves. As touching the use and commodities of this tree, the barke serveth to colour skins and leather: the root to die wooll. And as for the fruit or Apples that it beareth that it beareth, they are a speciall kind by themselves: for all the world they resemble the snouts or muzzles of wild beasts, and many of the smaller sort seeme to hang to one that is bigger than the rest.

As concerning the boughs of trees, some are tearmed blind, because they put not forth certaine eies or chits where they should bud: which happeneth sometime by a naturall defect, when they are not of validitie to thrust out a bud; otherwhiles it is occasioned by some wrong and injustice done, namely, when they be cut off, and in the place of the cut there groweth as it were a callous skar that dulleth the vertue of the tree. Furthermore, look what is the nature that forked trees have in their boughs, the same hath the Vine in her eies and burgeons; the same also have canes and reeds in their joints and knots. Over and besides, all trees toward their root, and the nearest to the ground, are thicker than elsewhere. Some run up altogether in height, and therein shew their growth, as the Firre or Deale tree, the Larch, Date-tree, Cypresse, Elme, and generally all that rise up in one entire stocke, and are not devided. Of those also that branch and put out many boughes, there is a kind of Cherry-tree that is found to beare armes like beames fortie cubits long,33 and two foot in thicknesse square throughout the whole length.

Chap. XXXI.

Of the Boughes, Barke, and Roots of trees.

There are trees, that immediatly from the root thrust out boughs and branches, as doe the Apple-trees. Some be covered with a thin rind, as the Lawrell and Lime-tree: others with a thicke barke, as the Okes. In some a man shall find the barke even and smooth, as in the Apple-tree and Fig-tree: the same in others is rough and rugged, as is to bee seene in Okes and Date-trees. And ordinarily, all old trees have more riveled barkes and furrowed, than the younger. In many trees, the Barke naturally dooth breake and cleave of the owne accord, and namely in the Vine. From some it shaleth and falleth off, as from the Aple-tree and the Arbut. The Corke and the Poplar have a fleshie and pulpous barke: the rind of the Vine and the reed, is made in the manner of a membrance or thin skin. In Cherry-trees it is as slender as Paper, and runneth into rolls: but Vines, Lindens, and Firs, are clad with tunicles and coats of many folds. In some again the rind is but single, as in the Fig-tree, and the cane or reed. And thus much of Barke.

There is as great difference in the root. For the Fig-tree, the Oke, and the Plane, have great store of roots and large spurns: contrariwise, in the Apple-tree they are short and small. the Fir and Larch have one tap root and no more: for upon that one maine maiser-root they rest and are founded; howbeit, many small strings and petie spurns shoot out of the sides. In the Bay-tree the roots be more grosse and unequally embossed, & likewise the Olive, which also spreadeth out into many branches. But those of the Oke bee of a carnous substance: and verily, all the kind of Okes doe root deepe into the ground. Certess, if wee give credit to Vergill, that sort of them which are called Esclu, goe down as deepe into the earth with their roots, as they arise & mount above ground with their heads.34 The roots of the Apple-tree, Olive, and Cypresse, lie very ebbe, and creepe hard ounder the sourd of the ground. Moreover, there bee roots that runne direct and streight, as those of the Bay and Olive: there be againe that wind and turne as they goe, as those of the Fig-tree. Some are all overgrowne and full of hairie strings, as the Firre root, and many others of wild trees that grow in forrests; from which the mountainers use to plucke those fine fibres and small threds, wherwith they twist goodly faire paniers, covers for flaggons and bottels, and worke many other vessels and pretie devises. Some m writers hold opinion and have put down in their bookes, that no roots goe lower into the earth, than that the Sunnes heat may pierce unto them and give them a kind warmth; the which is more or lesse, say they, according to the nature of the soile, as it is either lighter and leane, or massier, richer and faster compact. But I take this to be a meere untruth. This is certaine that wee find in auncient writers, that a young Firre, when it was to be transplanted and set againe, had a root that went eight cubits within the earth; and yet it was not digged up all whole, but broken in the taking up, and left somewhat behind. The roots of Citron trees are biggest of all other, and spread most. Next to them are those of the Planes, Okes, and other Mast-trees. Some trees there be, the roots whereof like better and live longer, the more ebbe that they lie within the upper face of the ground, and namely, Lawrels; and therefore they spring fresh againe, and put forth better, when the old stocke is withered and cut away. Others hold, that trees which have short stumped roots, doe sooner decay, & live lesse while, but deceived they are, and may bee reproved by the instance of Fig-trees, which live least while, and yet their roots are longest of any other. I suppose this also to bee as false, which some have held and delivered in writing, That the roots doe diminish and decay, as the trees doe wax old: for the contrarie hath been seene by an aged Oke, which by the violent force of a tempest was overthrowne, the root whereof took up a good acre of ground in compasse.

Moreover, a common thing it is and ordinarie, to replant and recover many trees that have been blowne downe and laid along: for they will rejoine, knit againe, and revive, by meanes of the earth, even as a wound doth unite by the solder of a callous cicatrice. And this is a most usuall and familiar practice observed in the Planes, which by reason of their great heads so thicke of boughs, gather winds most, and are soonest subject to their rage: if any one of them by that meanes be fallen, they lop their boughs, and discharge them of their weightie load, and then set them upright againe in their owne place, as it were in a socket, and they will take root and prosper. And in good faith, this hath been done heretofore alreadie in Walnut trees, Olives, and many others, to the like proofe.

Chap. XXXII.

Of certaine prodigious trees, and presages observed by them. By what meanes trees grow of their owne accord. That all plants grow not every where: and what trees they be that are appropriate to certaine regions, and are not elsewhere to be found.

We read in Chronicles and records, that many trees have fallen without wind and tempest, or any other apparent cause, but onely by way of prodigie and presage of some future event: and the same have risen againe of themselves without mans helpe. This happened during the warres against the Cymbrians, to the great astonishment of the people of Rome, who thereupon gathered a fore-tokening of great consequence: for at Nuceria in the grove of Iuno, there was an old Elme fell, and after the head was lopped off, because it light upon the very altar of Iuno, it arose of it owne accord; and that which more is, immediately upon it put forth blossomes and flourished. And this was observed, That from that very instant, the majestie of the people of Rome began to take heart, revive, and rise againe, which had been decaied and enfeebled by so many and so great losses that the Romanes had received. The like chanced (by report) neare the citie Philippi, unto a Willow tree which was fallen downe, and the head of it cut off cleane: semblably, to an Aspen tree at Stagyræ, neare unto the colledge or publick place of Exercise there. And all these were fortunate presages of good lucke. But the greatest wonder of all other was this, of a Plane-tree in the Isle Antandros, which was not onely fallen, but also hewed and squared on all sides by the Carpenter; and yet it rose againe by it selfe, and recovered the former greenenesse and lived, notwithstanding it bare fifteene cubits in length, and four elns in thicknesse or compasse.

All trees that we are beholden unto the goodnesse of Nature for, wee ahve by three meanes: for either they grow of their own accord, or come of seed, or else by some shoot springing from the root. As for such as we enjoy by the art and industrie of men, there bee a great number more of devises that effect: whereof wee will speake apart in a severall booke for that purpose.35 For the present our treatise is of trees that grown in Nature’s garden onely, wherein shee hath shewed her selfe many waies after a wonderfull manner, right memorable.

First and formost, as we have shewed and declared before,36 every thing will not grow in every place indifferently: neither if they bee transplanted, will they live. this happeneth sometimes upon a disdaine, otherwhiles upon a peevish frowardnesse and contumacie, but oftener by occasion of imbecilitie and feeblenesse of the very things that are remooved and translated: nay, noe while the climate is against it, and envious; otherwhiles the soile is contrarie thereunto. The Baulme tree can abide no other place but Iurie. The Assyrian Pome Citron tree will not beare elsewhere than in Syria. As for the Date-tree, it scornes to grow under all climates: or, if it bee brought to that passe by transplanting, it refuseth to beare fruit. But say, that it fortune by some meanes, that she given some shew and apparence of fruit, shee is not so kind as to nourish and reare up to perfection, that which she brought forth, forced against her will. The Cinnamon shrub hath no power and strength to endure either the aire or earth of Syria, notwithstanding it be a neare neighbour to the naturall region of her nativitie. The daintie plants of Amomum or Spikenard, may not away with Arabia, albeit they be brought out of India thither by sea: for king Seleucus made triall thereof: so strange they are to live in any other countrey but their own. Certainely, this is a most wonderfull thing to bee noted, That many times the trees for their part may be entreated to remove into a forraine countrey, and there to live; yea, and otherwhiles the ground and soile may bee persuaded and brought to accord so well with plants (bee they never such stangers) that it will feed and nourish them; but unpossible it is to bring the temperature of the aire, and the climate, to condiscend thereto and bee favourable unto them. The Pepper-trees live in Italie; the shrub of Casia or the Canell likewise in the Notherly regions; the Frankincense tree also hath been knowne to live in Lydia: but where were the hote gleames of the Sunne to be found in those regions, either to drie up the waterish humor of the one, or to concoct and thicken the gumme and rosin of the other? Moreover, there is another marvell in Nature, welneere as great as that, namely, that she should so change and alter in those same places, and yet exercise her vertues and operations otherwhiles againe, as if there were no change nor alteration in her. She hath assigned the Cedar tree unto hote countries: and yet we set it to grow in the mountaines of Lycia and Phrygia. shee hath so appointed and ordained, that cold places should be hurtfull and contrarie to Bay-trees, howbeit, there is not a tree prospereth better, nor groweth in more plentie upon the cold hill Olympus, than it. About the streights of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and namely, in the cittie Panticapæum, both K. Mithridates, and also the inhabitants of those quarters, used all meanes possible to have the Lawrel and the Myrtle there grow, only to serve their turns when they should sacrifice to the gods: it would never be, did they what they could: and yet even then, there were good store of trees there growing of a warm temperature; there were Pomegranates and Fig-trees plenty; and now adaies there be Apple-trees and Pyrries in those parts, of the best and daintiest sort. Contrariwise, ye shall not find in all that tract any trees of a cold nature, as Pines, Pitch-trees, and Firres. But what need I to goe as farre as to Pontus for to averre and make good my word? Goe no farther than Rome, hardly, and with much adoe will any Chestnut or Cherrie trees grow neere unto it, no more than Peach-trees about the territory of Thusculum. And worke enough there is to make hazels and filbards to like there: turne but to Tarracina thereby, ye shall meet with whole woods full of Nut-trees.

Chap. XXXIII.

Of the Cypresse tree. That oftentimes some new plants do grow out of the ground, which were never knowne to be there beforetime.

The Cypresse hath bin counted a meere strange in Italy, and most unwilling there to grow, as wee may see in the workes of Cato, who hath spent more words, and made oftener mention of the Cypresse alone, than of all other trees whatsoever.37 Much ado there is with it before it come up; and as hard it is to grow, and when all is done, the fruit is good for nothing. The Berries that it beareth, bee wrinckled, and nothing lovely to the eie; the leaves wherewith it is clad, bitter in tast; a strong and violent smell it hath with it; not so much as the very shade thereof is delectable and pleasant; and the wood but small & not solide, but of an hollow substance, insomuch, as a man may range it among the kinds of Shrubs. Consecrated is this tree to Pluto, and herefore men use to set a bough thereof as a signe, before those houses wherein a dead corpes lieth under bourd. As touching the female Cypresse, it is long ere she beareth. The Cypresse tree for all this, in the end growing up to a pyramidall form sharpe pointed, is not rejected but much set by, if it were for nothing else but to stand betweene every row and ranke of Pine-trees: howbeit, now adaies it is ordered with cutting and clipping for to grow thicke in borders about garden quarters along the allies, also to climbe upon walls in manner of seeling: and being thus kept downe, it is by this meanes alwaies small and tender. Moreover, thereof are drawne many vines and borders about storie-workes in colours:38 for so fine is the leafe, so short & greene withall, that it may be brought in a traile to wind about pictuers either of hounds and hunters, or of ships and sailers, or any counterfets and images whatsover, most daintily.

Two sorts there are of the Cypresse tree. First that which runneth up into a pyramidal point, winding upward as a round spire, which also is called the female. As for the male, it sendeth out branches, and spreadeth broad: it is lopped also, and serveth in frames to beare up vines. Both the one and the other is suffered to grow for perches, railes, and plankes, to be made of their boughs when they are cut. Once in thirteen yeares there is made a fall, and not one of those but are sold for a Roman denier apiece. A wood thereof planted in this manner, is of all others most gainfull, and yeeldeth greatest profit: insomuch, as in old time they were wont commonly to say, That one fall of such Cypresse poles would yeeld a man a portion sufficient to give with his daughter in marriage.

The Island Candie is the naturall countrey of the Cypresse tree, howsoever Cato hath called it a Tarentine tree: haply, because it came thither first. In the Isle Ænaria, the Cypresse trees spring againe after they be cut downe to the roots. But in Candie, looke what ground soever a man doth breake up and plough, unless he sow or set it with some other thing, Cypresses will come up, and presently shew above ground. In many places also of that Isle, they spring and grow of themselves, even in ground otherwise untilled; and principally in the mountaines of Ida, and those which they cal the white Hils: upon the very crests and tops whereof, which are alwaies covered with snow, thy are to be seen in great plenty. A wonderfull thing, considering that in all other places they love warmth, and without it, will not grow: and besides, when they have met with a familiar ground unto them, yet they care not much for it, but disdaine so kind a nource: whereby a man may see, that not onely the nature of the soile, and the ordinarie power of the climat serveth much for these plants,, but also certain sudden and temporarie impressions of the aire do wonderfully worke in this case: for some showers there be, that oftentimes do bring seeds with them and ingender plants. The same rains do fall somtime after one certain manner, otherwhiles also in such strange sort, as men are able to give no reason thereof: A thing that befell the country about Cyrene in Barbary, at what time as the herbe Laserpitium (which beareth the gum Benjoine), grew there first: as hereafter we will write more at large in our treatise of herbes.39 Moreover, about the 430 yeree after the foundaton of Rome city, 40 there sprung up a very forest or wood neere unto the same city, by reason of a certaine thick and glutinous shoure like to Pitch, than then fell.

Chap. XXXIIII.

Of Ivie.

It is said, that now the Ivie tree groweth also in Asia: and yet Theophrastus in his time delivered the contrary, and affirmed, that neither it was to be found there, nor yet throughout all India, but only upon the mount Merus. Over and besides, it is reported, that Harpalus did what he could to store the country of Media therewith, but all in vaine.41 And as for Alexander the Graet, when he returned from out of India with the victory, for the rarenesse thereof he would have all his soldiers go in a sumptuous shew, wearing chaplets therof upon their heads; resembling herein prince Bacchus, in solemnities and high feasts of hwich god, the people of Thracia even at this day are furnished from this tree, and do with Ivie set out and garnish the heads of their launces, pikes, and iavelins, their mourrons also and targuets.

An enemy is Ivie doubtlesse to trees, and generally to all plants and sets whatsoever: it cleaveth and breaketh sepulchres built of stone, it undermineth city walls; good onely to harbour serpents, and most comfortable for their cold complexions: so that I cannot chuse but marvell much that it should be honored at all, and accounted of any worth. But to enter into a more particular consideration and dicourse of Ivie, two principall kinds are found therof, like as of all other trees, to wit, the male and the female. The male is described to be a more massive and greater body, to be clad with a harder and fattier leafe, and to shew a flower inclining to purple: and yet the flower of them both, the male as well as the female, doth resemble that of the wild Rose or Eglantine, save that it hath no smell at all. These generall kinds containe each of them three particular sorts: for there is the black and the white Ivie, and a third besides named Helix: and yet we must admit other subdivisions of these also: for of the white, there is one sort that beareth white fruit only, and another that hath white leaves withall: moreover, of such as carry only white fruit, one kind hath big berries growing thick together, and bunching round in maner of grapes, which clusters be called of the Greekes and Latines Corymbi.n A second sort thre is of the white Ivie named Selenitium, which beareth smaller berries, and those not so close set and thick couched together. Semblably, it is to be said of the black: for there is an Ivy that beareth also a black grain or seed: another with a fruit of a Saffron colour; and hereof are the garlands made which Poets weare: some call it Nysia, others Bacchicca: the leaves of it are not altogether so blacke, but it beareth the greatest bunchest and biggest berries of all the black kind. And verily of this Ivie there be some Greeke writers that make two sorts, aaccording to the divers colors of he berries: for the one they call Erythranus [i. the red;] & the other Chrysocarpos, as one would say, the golden berry. Now as touching the rampant or climbing Ivie, Helix, there be many and sundry sorts thereof, differing in their leafe especially: for first & formost the leaves of this Ivie are small, cornered, and better fashioned than the rest, which indeed are but of a plain and simple making. There is a difference likewise in the length between every knot and ioint, but especially in this, that it is barren and beareth no fruit at all. And yet some there be, who attribute that to the age, and not to a severall kind of Ivie by it selfe; saying, that the same which at first was Helix, and clasped trees, in tract of time changed the leaef and became a very Ivie tree;: but fouly they are deceived, and disproved plainly they may be by this, That of the said clasping Ivie Helix, there be many kinds, and three principall above the rest. The first, of grasse greene colour, which groweth most common: the second, with a white leaf: and the third, called also the Thracian Ivie, which hath leaves of diverse colours. The foresaid greene Ivie is fuller of leaves, and those finer and set in better order than in others; whereas the contrary is to be seen in the white kind: also in the third sort with variety of colours, some have smaller and thinner leaves, couched likewise in cgood order, and thicker growing, whereas in the middle kind, no such thing may be observed. Over and besides, leaves of Ivie are bigger or lesse, spotted also and marked; in which regard one differeth from another. Among the white Ivies, some be whiter than other. The green Ivie growth most of all others in length: the white killeth trees, for by sucking and soking al the sap and moisture out of them, it feedeth and thriveth so wel it selfe, that it becommeth in the end as big as a tree. A man may know an Ivie being come to his perfection by these signs: the leaves are very big and large withal; the tree putteth forth yong shoots straight, whereas in others they be crooked and bend inward: the berries also stand in their clusters directly upright. Moreover, whereas the branches of all other Ivies be made like unto roots, this hath boughes strong and sturdy above the rest; and next unto it, the black kind: howbeit this property hath the white Ivie by it self, that amid the leaves it putteth forth armes that clasp and embrace the tree round on every side: which it doth upon walls likewise, although it cannot so well compasse them. And hereupon it is,, that although it be cut asunder in many places, yet it continueth and liveth stil: and looke how many such arms it hath so many heads likewise of roots are to be seen, whereby it maintaineth it selfe safe and sound; great diversity in the fruit, as well of the white as the black Ivie. As for the rest, the berries of them are so exceeding bitter, as no bird will touch them. And yet there is one kind more of Ivy, which is very stiffe and standeth alone of it selfe without any prop to beare it up: and this of all others only, is theupon called Cissos or Ivie indeed. Contrariwise, Chamæcissos, [i. ground Ivie] is never knowne but to creep along the ground.

Chap. XXXV.

Of the Bind-weed or Ivie called Smilax.

Like unto Ivie, is that plant which they call Smilax, or rough Bind-weed. It came first out of Cilicia, howbeit more commonly it is to be seen in Greece: it putteth forth stalks set thicke with ioints or knots, and those thrust out many thornie branches. The leafe resembleth Ivie, and the same is small, and nothing cornered: from a little stele that it hath, it sendeth forth certain pretty tendrils to clasp and wind about: the floure is white, and smelleth like to a Lilly; it beareth clusters comming nearer to those grapes of the wild vine Labrusca, than to the berries of ivie; red of color, wherof the bigger contain with them 3 kernels or pepins apiece, the smaller but one, and those be hard and black withall. This Smilax is not used in any sacrifices or divine service of the gods, nor serveth for garlands and chaplets: for that it is held to be dolefull and ominous, or of an unlucky presage, by occasin of a certain yong lady or Damosellof that name, ho for the love of the young gallant and knight Crocus, was turned into this shrub or plant, retaining still her name: which the ignorant people not knowing, but taking it for a kind of ivie, stick not to make coronets therof; profaning by that means many times their high feasts and sacred solemnities: and yet who woteth not with what chaplets Poets are crowned, and what garlands prince Bacchus or Silenus used to weare? Of this Smilax are made certain manuell writing tables. And this property moreover hath the wood thereof, That if a man hold it close to his eare, he shall heare it to give a pretty sound.

But to return againe to the Ivie indeed, it hath (by report) a strange and wonderful vertue to trie wines, whether they be delaied with water or no: for make a cup of Ivie wood, and put wine thereinto, all the wine will soke and run through, but the water (if any be mingled therewith) will tarry behind.42

Chap. XXXVI.

Of Reeds, Canes, and other water shrubs.

In this discourse touching plants that love cold places, it wil not be amisse to treat of those that grow in waters. Among which, the Reeds and Canes may be raunged in the first place: for necessarie they be in time both of war and peace: they have their use besides; and are accepted among the delightsom pleasures of this world.o Moreover, in the Northern regions, the people use therewith to cover and thatch their houses: and this kind of roufe will last many ages, if it be laid with a thick coat, even upon high and stately houses. In other parts also of the world, they are woont with it to make their arch-roufes, and hanging floores of most slight worke. As for Canes particularly, and those of Ægypt by name, which have a certaine resemblance of the Papyr reed in Nilus, they serve for writing-paper. Howbeit those of Gnidos, and which grow in Asia along the lake or meere of Anaia, be held for the best. As for ours here in Itatly, they are of a more spungeous substance and gristly matter, apt to sucke and drinke up any liquor. The same within-forth is full of holes and concavities, but converted aloft into a fine woodie rind, and in time becommeth drie, fast, and hard. apt it is to cleave; and the clifts evermore carie with them a very sharp edge; and besides, it is full of joynts. Now this woodie substance being thus distinctly parted by knots, runneth alwaies even and smooth, growing smaller and smaller untill it proove sharpe pointed in the top; with a head consisting of a good thicke downe or plume, which serveth also to right good purposes: for eitehr in stead of feathers they use to stuffe beds therewith in common Innes; or when it is growne hard and hath a slimie callositie about it, they in Picardie and those nether-lands do stampe it, and therewith calfret or calke the joynts of their ships, betweene the ribs and plankes: and herein it hath no fellow, for it taketh faster hold than any glew, and for filling up any rifts and chinkes, no solder so strong, no pitch so sure and trustie. Of Reeds, the Easterlings make their shafts; and archers they be that fight their battailes and determine all quarels. These shafts they arme with sharpe barbed arrow heads in manner of fish hookes, which wound with a mischiefe, because they cannot be drawne out of the bodie againe: and to make these arrows flie the faster and kill more presently, they set feathers unto them. Now say that a shaft be broken as it is set fast in the bodie, that end without the flesh will serve againe to be shot: and so inured are the people in those parts to these kind of weapons, so practised withall in discharging them so nimbly, that a man seeing how thick the shafts flie in the aire, would say they were a cloud of arrowes that shadowed the very sunne. And therefore when they goe to battaile, they wish ever for faire weather and Sunne-shine dayes. Winds and raine, as most adverse unto their warres, they cannot abide: then are they quiet and rest in peace, full sore against their wills, because their weapons at such a time will not serve their turne. Certesif a man would fall to an exact reckoning and ætimate of Æthyopians, Ægyptians, Arabians, Indians, Scythians, and Bactrians, of so many nations also of the Sarmatians, and other East contries, togither with all the kingdomes of the Parthians, hee should find, that the one moietie or halfe of the world hath been vanquished and conquered by the meanes of arrowes and darts, made of Reeds. The Candiots above all others, were so readie and perfect in this kinde of feat, that the overweening of their owne skill, and the confidence which they had in this manner of service, made them too bold, and was in the end their owne overthrow. But herein also, as in all other things else whatsoever, Italie hath carried the name, and woon the prize: for there is not a better Reed growing for to make shafts, than that which is found about the Rhene, a little river running under Bononia: very full of marrow or pith; stiffe also it is and weightie withall; that beeing well headed with yron, they serve in stead of Speares and Iavelins. In very truth, the Indian Canes for the most part, grow to the bignesse of Trees, such as we see commonly in Temples, standing there for a shew. The Indians do affirme, that there is a difference amongst them also, in regard of sexe: and namely, That the substance and matter of the male, is more fast and massie: but that of the female, larger and of greater capacitie within. Moreover, (if wee may beleeve their words) the verie Cane betweene every ioint, is sufficient to make a boat. These great Canes do grow principally along the river Acesine. All Reeds in generall, doe shoot and spring in great number from one root and principall stocke: and the more they bee cut, the better they come againe. The root liveth long, and without great iniurie offered unto it, it will not die: it also is divided into many knottie ioints. Those onely of India, have short leaves. But in all of them the leafe springeth out of the ioint, which embracing the Cane, doth clad it round about with certaine thin membrances or tunicles, as far as to the middle space between the ioints, and then for the most part they give over to claspe the cane, and hang downeward to the ground. As well Reeds as Canes, spread their leaves like wings round one after another, on either side upon the very ioints, and that in alternative course alwaies very orderly; so as if the one sheath come forth of the right side, the other at the next ioint or knot above it, putteth out on the left, and thus it doth throughout by turnes. From these nodosities, otherwhiles a man shall perceive as it were certaine little branches to break foorth, and those bee no other but small and slender Reeds.

Moreover there be many kindes of Reeds and Canes: for some of them stand thicker with ioints, and those are more fast and solid than others, & small distance there is between the same: there be again that have not so many of them, and greaer space there is from one to the other, and such Canes for the most part are of a thinner substance. Yee shall have a Cane all full of holes within, called thereupon Syringias; and such are very good to make whistles or small flutes, because they have within them neither gristly nor fleshie substance. The Orchomenian Cane is hollow throughout from one end to the other, and this they call Auleticus, or the pipe Cane; for as the former was fit for flutes, so is this better for great pipes. Now you shall meet with Canes also that stand more of the wood, & have but a narrow hole and concavity within; and this is full of a spungeous pith or marow within-forth. Some be shorter, some longer than other: and where you have one that is thin and slender, you shall spie a fellow to it more grosse and thcker. That which brancheth most, & putteth forth greatest store of shoots, is called Donax, and is never known to grow but in marishes and watery places (for herein also lieth a difference) and preferred it is far before the Reed that commeth up in dry ground. The archers reed is a severall kind by it selfe (as we have shewed before;43) but of this sort, those in Candy have the greatest spaces btweene every ioint; and if they be made hot, they are very pliable, and will bend and follow which way soever a man would have them.

Moreover, Reeds are distingushed one from another by the Leafe, not for the number, but the strength and colour. The leaves of those about Lacedæmon,p are stiffe and strong, growing thicker of the one side than of the other. And such as these are throught generally to grow along standing pooles and dead waters, far unlike to those about running rivers: and besides, to be clad with long pellicles, which claspe and climbe abou the Cane higher above the ioint, than the rest doe. Furthermore, there is another kind of Reeds that groweth crooked and winding travers, and not upright unto any height, but creeping low toward the ground, and spreading it selfe in manner of a shrub. Beasts take exceeding great delight to feed thereof, and namely, when it is young and tender, for the sweet and pleasant taste that it hath. Some cal this Reed, Elegia.

Over and besides, there breedeth in Italy also among the fens, a certain salt fome, named Andarca,qsticking to the rind or utmost barke of Reeds and Canes, onely under the verie tuft and head: passing good it is for the tooth-ach, by reason of the hot and caustick quality that it hath like to Senvie or Mustard-seed. As touching the Reed-plots about the Orchomenian lake, I must needs write more exactly, considering in which admiration they were in times past; for, in the first place, they called that Cane which was the thicker and more strong, Characias; but the thinner and more slender, Plotia. And this verily was wont to be found swimming in the Islands that floted in the said lake; whereas the other grew alwaies firme upon the bankes and edges thereof, how farre soever it spred and flowed abroad. A third sort also there is of Canes, which they call Auleticon, for that it serveth to make flutes nad pipes of; but this commonly grew but every ninth yeare: for the said lake also kept that time just, and encreased not above that tearme; but if at any time it chaunced to passe that time and to continue full two yeares togither more than ordinarie, it was holden for a prodigious and fearefull signe. The which was noted at Chæronia, in that unfortunate battaile wherein the Atheniens were overthrown and defeated: and many times else is observed to happen about Lebadia, namely, when the river Cephisus riseth so high, that he swelleth over his bankes, and is discharged into the said lake. Now during that ninth yeare (whiles the inundation of the lake continueth) these Canes proove so bigge and strong withall, that they serve for hawking poles, and fowlers pearches: and then the Greeks call them Zeugitæ. Contrariwise, if the water hold not so long, but doe fall and returne bacak within the year, then the Reeds be small and slender, named Bombyciæ. Howbeit the females of this kind, have a broader and whiter leafe, little or no downe at all upon them, and then they are knowne by a pretie name and called Spadones, as one would say, guelded. Of these Reeds were made the instruments for the excellent close musicke within-house: wherein, I cannot passe with silence, what a wonderfull deale of paines and care they tooke to fit them for their tune, and make them to accord: insomuch, as wee are not to be blamed but borne withall, if now adaies we chuse rather to have our pipes and hautboies of silver. And in truth, unto the time of Antigenes (that excellent minstrell and plaier upon the pipe) all the while that there was no use but of the plaine musicke and single instrument; the right time of cutting down and gatherine these Reeds for this purpose, was about September, when the signe Arcturus is in force: then were they to have a seasoning and preparation for certain yeares, before they would serve the turne: yea and then also much adoe there was with them, and long practise and exercise they asked, before they could be brought into frame and good tune: for as a many might well say, that the very pipes were to be taught their sound and note, by means of certain tongues or quils that strucke and pressed one upon another; and all to give contentment and shew pleasure unto the people assembled at Theatres, according as those times required. But after that musicke came once to be compound, and that men sung and plaied in parts with more varietie and delight, they began to gather these Reeds before mid-Iune, and in three yeares space they had their perfection and grew to their proofe: then were those tongues or holes made more wide and open, for to quaver and chaunge the note the better: and of such are the flutes and pipes, which be used at this day. But in those times men were persuaded, that there was a great difference in the parts of any Reeds for to serve these or those instruments: in such sort, as that joynt which was next unto the root, they held to be meeter for the Base pipe that was fitted for the left hand; and contrariwise for the Treble of the right hand, those knots that were toward the head and top of the Reed. Howbeit of all others, by many degrees were those preferred which grew in the river Cephisus. Now adaies the Hautboies that the Tuscanes play upon at their sacrifices, bee of Box-wood; but the pipes used in plaies for pleasure only, are made of the Lotos, of asses shank-bones, and of silver. The best Faulconers Reeds wherewith they use to chase foules, came from Panhormus: but the Canes for angle-rods that fishers occupie, are brought out of Africk from Abaris. The Italian Reeds and Canes be fittest to make perches to lay over frames, & props for to bear up vines. Finally, as touching the setting of Reeds, Cato would have them to be planted in moist grounds, after they have been first delved and laid hollow with a spade; provided alwaies that the œlets stand three foot asunder; and that there be wild Sparages among, whereof come the tender crops for sallads; for those like well and sort togither with the Canes.

Chap. XXXVII.

Of the Willow or Sallow, eight kinds thereof: and what trees besides the Willow are goof for bindings. Also of Briers and Brambles.

Moreover (after the opinion of the said Cato) it is good to plant. Withies also about river sides, and neare to Reeds: for surely there is not more profit arising from any other tree of the waters, than from it; howsoever the Poplars are well liked and loved of the vines, and doe nourish the good wines of Cæcubum: howsoever the Alders serve in stead of rampiers and strong fences against the inundation and overflowing of rivers, withstanding their forcible eruptions; howsoever they stand in the waters as mures and walls to fortifie the banks, or rather as sentinels to watch and ward in the borders of country farmes; and being cut down to the root, doe multiplly the rather, and put forth many shoots and imps as heirs to succeed. And to begin withall, of Sallows there be many kinds: for some there be, that in the head beare pearches of a greater length to prop and make trailes for vines to run upon: and the rind or skin as it were pilled from the wood, is as good as a belt or thong to bind or gird any thing withall. Others againe there are, and namely the red Willowes, which carie twigs and rods that are pliable and gentle to wind as a man would have them; fit also for buildings. Ye shall have of these Osiers, some that are very fine & passing slender, wherof are wrought pretie baskets and many other daintie devises; others also that are more tough and strong, good to make paniers, hampers, and a thousand other necessarie implements for countrey houses, and to fit the husband-men. Beeing pilled, they are the fairer and whiter, more smooth also and gentle in hand, wherreby they are excellent good for the more delicate sort of such wicker ware, and better farre than stubborn leather; but principally for leaning chaires, wherein a man or woman may gently take a nap, sitting at ease and repose most sweetly. A Willow, the more that it is cut or lopt, the better spring will it shoot at root, and beare the fairer head. Let that which you cut or shred, be so little and short withall, that it resemble a mans fist, rather than a bough, the thicker will it come againe: a tree no doubt that would not be set in the lowest ranke, but be well regarded, howsoever we make but base reckoning thereof: for surely there is not a tree for revenue or profit, more safe and certaine; for cost, lesse chargeable; and for injurie of weather, in better securitie. Certes Cato, among the commodities that commend a good ferme or manour, esteemeth it in the third place,44 and preferreth the encrease and benefit thereby, before the gaine that groweth from Olive rowes, corne fields, and good medowes. Yet hereof wee must not infer, that wee are not furnished with many other things which will serve for bands to bind withall; for we have certain sorts of Spart or Spanish broome, wee have Poplars, elmes, the Sanguine-shrubs, Birch, cloven Reeds, leaves of Cane; as for example in Liguria: the cuttings also of the very Vine, and Briars, so their sharp pricks be cut away, to tie withall; yea and the Hazell wands also, so they be writhen and twined: wherein a many may see a wonderfull propertie, That a wood should be sronger for to bind withall, when it is crushed and bruised, than whiles it was entire and sound. All these (I say) are good for bands, and yet the Willow hath a gift therein beyond the rest. The Greek Willow is red, and commonly is sliven for to make withes. The American osier is the whiter, but more brittle, and soone will cracke, and therefore it is put to that use of binding sound and whole as it groweth, and not cloven through. In Asia, they make account of three sorts of Willows: the blacke, which they employ to wind and bind withall, so tough and pliant it is: the white, wherewith husbandmen make their wicker paniers and baskets, with other such vessels for their use: as for the third, it is the shortest of all other, and they call it Helix, or Helice. With us also here in Italie, there be as many kinds, and those distinguished by their severall names: the first, which is of a deepe purple colour, they call the free Osier or Willow; and that is so good for bands: the second, which is more thin and slender, is named Vitelina,r for the bright hew that it hath: the third that is smallest of all three, is the French Willow.

To come now to the brittle Rushes that grow in marish grounds, which serve to thatch houses and to make mats; and the pith whereof when the rind is pilled, maketh wicke for watch-candles, and funerall lights to burne by a dead corps whiles it lieth above ground: they cannot justly be reckoned in the ranke either of Shrubs, or Brier-bushes and Brambles, ne yet of tall plants growing up with stems and stalkes, no more than among Hearbs and Weeds creeping along the ground; but are to be counted a severall kind by it selfe. True it is, that in some places there are to be found rushes more stiffe, hard, and strong, than in others. For not onely mariners and watermen in the river Po do make sailes thereof, but fishermen also of Affrick in the maine sea: howbeit they hang their sailes betweene the masts, from mast to mast, after a preposterous manner contrary to all other. The Moores also doe cover their cottages with Bulrushes: and surely if a man looke nearely to the nature of them, they may seeme to serve for that use which the Papyr reeds in the neather-land of Ægypt are put unto, about the descent and fall of the river Nilus.

As touching Brambles, they may goe among the shrubs of the water: so may the Elders also, which consist of a spongeous kind of matter, & yet cannot well be counted among those plants which be tearmed Fenels-gyant: for surely the Elder standeth more upon the wood than they doe. The shepheards are verily persuaded, that the Eldertree growing in a by-place farre out of the way, and from whence a man cannot heare a cocke crow out of any town, maketh more shrill pipes and lowder trumpes than any other. The Brrambles beare certaine berries like the Mulberries, even as the sweeet Brier of another kind, which they call Cynosbatos or the Eglantine, carrieth the resemblance of a Rose. A third sort there is of Brambles, which the Greeks call Idæa, of the mountaine Ida. This is the Raspis: smaller it is and more slender than the rest, with lesse pricks upon it, and nothing so sharpe and hooked. The flower of this Raspis beeing tempered with honey, is good to be laid to bleared and bloodshotten eyes; as also to the wild-fire or disease called Saint Anthonies fire. Being taken inwardly, and namely drunk with water, it is verie comfortable to a weake stomacke. The Elder beareth certaine blacke and small Berries, full of a grosse and viscous humor, used especially to die the haire of the head blacke. If they be boiled in waer, they are good and wholesome to be eaten, as other pothearbes.

Chap. XXXVIII.

Of the juice or humor in trees. The nature of their wood and timber. The time and manner of felling and cutting downe trees.

Trees have a certaine moisture in their barkes, which we must understad to bee their verie bloud, yet is it not the same, nor alike in all: for that of the Figge trees is as white as milke, and as good as rendles to give the forme to cheese. Cherrie trees yeeld a glutinous and gummie humor, but elmes a thin liquor in manner of spittle. In Apple trees the same is fattie and viscous; in Vines and Pyrries, waterish. And generally, there are to bee considered in the substance and bodie of trees, like as of all other living creatures, their skin, their bloud, flesh, sinewes, veines, bones, and marrow. For in lieu of their hide is the barke. And I assure you, a straunge and marvellous thing it is to be observed here in the Mulberrie, that when Physicians seeke to draw the foresaid liquor out of it, as seven or eight a clocke in a morning, if they scarifie or lightly cut the barke with a stone, it issueth forth, and they have their desire; but if they crush or cut it deeper, they meet with no more moisture than if it were starke drie. In most trees next to the skin lieth the fat; his is nought else but that white sap, which of the colour is called in Latin Alburnum. As it is soft in substance, so is it the worst part of the wood; and even in the strong Oke, as hard as otherwise it is, ye shall have it soone to putrifie and rot, yea, and quickly to bee worme-eaten. And therefore, if a man would have sound and good timber, this white must be alwaies cut away in the squaring. After it, followeth the flesh of the tree; and so the bone, which is the very heart and best of the wood.

All trees whereof the wood is over drie, beare fruit but each other yeare, or at leastwise more in eone yeare than another, as namely, the Olive tree. A thing observed more in them, than in those that have a pulpous and fleshie substance, as the Cherrie tree. Neither are all trees indifferently furnished with store of the said fat or flesh, no more than the most fierce and furious beasts. As for the Boxe, Cornell, and Olive teres, they have neither the one nor the other, ne yet any marrow at all, and but verie little bloud. Semblably, the Servise tree hath no heart, the Elder no carnositie, (and yet both of them are stored well ynough with marrow, whch is their pith) no more than canes or reedes for the most part. In the fleshie substance or wood of some trees, there are to bee found graine and veine both. And easie it is to distinguish the one from the other: for commonly the veines bee larger and whiter; contrariwise, the graine (which the Latines call Pulpa) runneth streight and direct in length, and is to bee found ordinarily in trees that will easily clevae. And hereupon it commeth, That if a man lay his eare cloes to one end of a beame or peece of timber, he shall heare the knocke or pricke that is made but with a penknife at the other end, bee the peece never so long, by reason that the sound goeth along the streight graine of the wood. By this meanes also a man shall find when the timber down twine, and whether it runne not even, but bee interrupted with knots in the way.

Some trees there be that have certaine hard bunches, bearing out and swelling like to kernels in the flesh of a Swines necke, and these knobs or callosities, have not in them long graine and broad veine, as is abovesaid: but onely a brawnie flesh (as it were) rolled round together. And to say a truth, when such knurs and callosities as these bee, are found either in Citron or Maple trees, men make great account of them, and set no small store by that wood. All other sorts of tables, when the trees are cloven or sawne into plankes, are brought into a round compasse with the graine: for otherwise, if it were slit overthwart to make them round against the grain, it woul dsoone breake out. As touching the Beech, the graine of it runneth crosse two contrarie waies like combe teeth; but in old time the vessels made of that wood, were highly esteemed. As for example, Manius Curius having subdued his enemies, protested, and bound it with an oth, That of all the bootie and pillage taken from them, hee hath not reserved any thing for himselfe, but onely a cruet or little ewer or Beech wood, wherewith he might sacrifice unto the gods.

There is no wood but floteth aloft the water; and waveth in length: like as that part which is next to the root, is farre more weightie, setleth faster downe and sinketh. Some wood hath no veines at all, but consisteth onely of a meere graine, streight and small in manner of threds: and such commonly is easie to be cloven. There is againe wood which hath no such direct grain, and that will sooner breake out than cleave, and of this nature is the Olive and Vine-wood. Contrariwise, the whole bodie and woodie substance of the Fig-tree, is nothing but flesh. The Mast-holme, Cornell, Oke, Tretrifolie, Mulberrie, Ebenie, and Lotus, which have no pith and marrow within, as is beforesaid, are all heart. All wood for the most part turneth to a blackish colour. The Cornell tree is of a deepe yellow, whereof are made the faire Bore-speare staves, which shine againe, and bee studded (as it were) with knots, and chamfred betweene, both for decencie and handsomenesse. The Cedar, Larch, and Iuniper wood, is red.

Chap. XXXIX.

Of the Larch, the Firre, and the Sapine: the manner of cutting or falling such like trees.

There is a female Larch tree which the Greekes call Ægis: the wood whereof is of a pleasant colour, like to honie. Painters have found by experience, that it is excellent good for their tables, both for that it is so even and smooth, not apt besides to chinke and cleare; as also because it will endure and last for ever. And that part they chuse which is the very heart of it, and next the pith, which in the Fir tree the Greekes call Leuson. In like sort the very heart of the Cedar is hardest, which lieth next to the pith or marrow abovenamed (much after the manner of bones in the bodies of living creatures) when the muddie carnositie is scraped off & taken away. The inward part also of the Elder by report is wonderous hard and tough, and they that make thereof staves for Bore-speares, prefer it before any wood whatsoever. For it standeth onely upon skin and bone, that is to say, of the rind and heart.s

As touching the falling and cutting downe of trees, to serve either in temples or for other uses, round and entire as they grow, without any squaring; as also for to bark them; the only time and season is, when the sap runneth, and that they begin to bud forth: otherwise you shall never be able to get off their barke: for barke them not, they will rot and become worme-eaten under the said barke, and the timber withall waxe duskish and blacke. As for the other timber that is squared with the axe, and by that meanes rid from the barke, it would bee fallen out or cut downe betweene mid-winter and the time that the wind Favonius bloweth: or, if wee bee forced to use timber before, and to prevent that time, trees may be fallen at the setting of the star Arcturus, or of the Harpe star before it. Finally, the utmost and last time thereof is at the Summer Sunstead. But for as much as most men be ignorant of these seasons, and know not when these stars abovenamed doe either rise or fall, I will hereafter shew the reason both of the one and the other in place convenient.45 For this present, as touching the time of felling trees, the common sort make no more scruple, but thinke it sufficient to observe, that no trees which are to be hewne square for Carpenters worke be cast downe and laid along before they have borne their fruit. As for the hard and savage Oke, if it bee felled in the Spring, it will be subject to the worme: but cut it down in midwinter, it will neither warpe, nor yet cleave and chinke: being otherwise subject unto both, namely, as well to cast and twine, as to rift and gape: a thing incident to the Corke wood, bee it cut downe in as good a season as it is possible. Moreover, it passeth to see how much the age of the Moone availeth in this case. For it is commonly thought, that timber would not be fallen but in the wane, and namely, in the last quarter, from the twentieth day of the Moone, untill the thirtieth. And this is generally received among all good workemen, That the best time to cut downe any timber, is in the conjunction of the Moone with the Sunne, even the very day of the change, before she sheweth new. Certes, Tiberius Cæsar the Emperour, gave order to fell the Larch trees that came out of Rhœtia, to repaire and reedifie the bridge that served to represent the shew of a navell battell upon the water (which fortuned to be consumed with fire) just at the chaunge of the Moone. Some say, that we must precisely observe the point of the conjunction, and that the Moone withall be under the earth, when such trees should be felled: which cannot be but in the night. But if it fall out besides, that this conjunction or change of the Moone, and the last day of the winter Sunstead meet together at one instant: the timber then cut downe will last a world of yeares. Next unto it is that timber which is fallen in the daies and signes above rehearsed. Others affirme moreover, that the rising of the Dog star would be considered & chosen for this purpose: for at such a time was that timber felled, which served for the stately hall or pallace of Augustus. Moreover, to have good and profitable timber, the trees would bee cut downe that are of a middle age, for neither young poles nor old runts are fit for durable building. Furthermore, thre bee that hold opinion, That for to have the better timber, the trees should have a kerfe to the very heart and pith round about, and so let it stand an end still, that all the humor by that meanes might run out, before they be overthrowne and laid along. And verily, a wonderfull and miraculous thing is reported in old time, during the first Punicke war against the Carthaginians, namely, That all the ships of that fleet which was conducted by Generall Duellius the high Admirall, were shot into the sea and under saile, within threescore daies after that the timber whereof they were built, was cut downe in the wood. And L. Piso hath left in writing, that against king Hiero, there were two hundred and twentie ships made and furnished in five and fortie daies after the timber grew. Also in the second Punicke war, the Armado which Scipio emploied, was set aflote and bare saile fortie daies after the fall of the timber. See how forcible and effectuall in all things is the season & opportunitie of time duly taken, especially when need driveth to make speed and hasten apace.

Cato the cheefe and onely man of all others for experience and knowledge in every thing, in his Treatise of all kind of timber to be emploied in building, giveth these rules following,46 “Make thy pressing planke especially of the black t Sapine or Hornbeame tree. Item, The right season to fell a tree for timber, is when the fruit is full ripe. Item, Beware in any case, that thou neither draw foorth of the ground, nor yet square a tree, when the dew falleth. And a little after.47 Beware thou meddle not with timber trees but either at the change or full of the Moone. And in no hand, neither storke it up then, nor hew it hard to the ground. But within foure daies after the full Moone, plucke up trees hardly, for that is the best time. Item, Be well advised, that thou neithere fell, square, nor touch with the ax, any timber that is blacke, unless it be drie. And meddle not with it, if either it be frozen, or full of dew.” Tiberius the Emperour abovenamed, observed likewise the chaunge of the Moone, for cutting the haire both of head and beard. And yet M. Varro gave a rule, That to prevent baldnesse and the shedding of haire, the Barber should be sent for alwaies after the full Moone.48

But to come againe unto our timber trees. The Larch and Fir, but the Fir especially, if they be cut down, bleed a long time after, and yeeld abundance of moisture. Indeed, these twaine of all others bee the tallest, and grow most streight and upright. For Mast poles, and crosse-Saile-yards in ships, the Fir or Deale is commended and preferred before all other, for the smoothness and lightenesse withall. The Larch, the Fir, & the Pine, have this propertie common to them all, To shew the graine of their wood, running either parted in foure, forked in twaine, or single one by one. For fine Carpentrie and Ioiners seeling within the house, the heart of the tree would be cloven or rent. The quarter timber, or that which runneth with foure graines, is simply the best, and more pleasant to be wrought than the rest. They that be skilfull woodmen and have experience in timber, will soone find at the first sight the goodnesse of the wood by the very barke. That part of the Fir tree which groweth next to the earth, is without knots, even and plaine: the same is laid to soke and season in the water, and afterwards the barke is taken off, and so it commeth to be called Sapinus. The upper part is knottie and harder than the nether, and the Latines name it Fusterna. In summe, what tree soever it be, that side which regardeth the North, is more strong and hard than the other. And generally, the wood of those trees that grow in moist and shadie places is the worse: contrariwse, that which commeth from ground exposed to the Sunneshine is more fast and massie, and withall, endureth a long time. And hereupon it is, that at Rome the Fir trees that come from the nether sea side out of Tuscane, be in better request than those from Venice side, upon the coast of the upper sea.

Moreover, there is great ods betweene Fir trees, in regard of diverse countries and nations where they grow. The best are those of the Alpes and the Apennine hils. Likewise within France there are excellent good Firs upon the mountaines Iura and Vogesus: as also in Corsica, Bithynia, Pontus, and Macedonia. A worse kind of them grow in Arcadia and about the mountaines Ænea. The worst be those of Pernassus, & Eubœa: for in those parts they be full of boughs and grow twined, besides, they soone doe putrefie and rot.

As for Cedars, the best simply be those that grow in Candie, Affricke, and Syria. This vertue hath the oile of Cedar, That if any wood or timber be throughly annointed therewith, it is subject neither to worme nor moth, ne yet to rottennesse.

pci The Iuniper hath the same propertie that the Cedar. They prove in Spaine to bee exceeding big and huge, the Berries also greatest of all others.49 And wheresoever it groweth, the heart thereof is more sound than the Cedar.

A generall fault and imperfection there is common to all wood, When the grain, & the knots run into round balls; and such they call in Latine Spiræ. Also in some kind of timber, like as in marble also there bee found certaine knurs like kernils, as hard they be as naile heads, and they plague sawes, wheresoever they light upon them. Otherwhiles they fall out to be in trees, by some accidentall occasion, as namely, when a stone is gotten into the wood, and enclosed within it: or, in case the bough of some other tree be incorporate or united to the foresaid wood. There stood a long time a wild Olive in the market place of Megara, upon which the hardie and valiant warriors of that citie use to hang and fasten their armor, after some worthie exploit performed: which in tract and continuance of time were overgrowne with the barke of the said tree, & quite hidden. Now was this a fatall tree unto the same citie and the inhabitants thereof, who by way of Oracle were forewarned of their wofull destinie and utter ruin; which was to happen, When that a tree should be with young, and delivered of harneis: which Oracle was fulfilled when this tree was cut downe, for within the wombe thereof were found the mourrions, jambriers or freives, of brave men in times past.50 To conclude, it is said, That such stones so found in trees be singular good for a woman with child, to carie about her, that she may goe her full time.

Chap. XL.

Of divers sorts of timber. Of certaine trees of extraordinarie bignesse. What trees they be that never be worme-eaten, nor decay and fall. What wood doth endure and continue alwaies good.

The greatest tree that to this day had ever been knowne or seene at Rome, was that, which being brought with other timber for the rebuilding of the foresaid bridge called Naumachiatria, Tiberius Cæsar commanded to be landed and laid in abroad view for a singular and miraculous monument to all posteritie: and it remained entire & whole, until the time Nero the Emperour built his stately Amphitheatre.51 This peece of timber was of a Larch tree: it contained in length 120 foot, and carried in thicknesse every way two foot, from one end to the other. Whereby a man may guess and judge the incredible height of the whole tree besides, to the very op. Such another tree there was to be seen in our daies, which M. Agrippa left for the like singularitie & wonder of men, in those stately porches and cloisters that he made in Mars field: and it continued still after the building of the muster place and treasurers hall named Diribitorium. Shorter it was than the former by twentie foot, and caried a foot and halfe in thicknesse. As for the Fir tree, which served for a mast in that huge ship, which by the commaundement and direction of C. Caligula the Emperour transported and brought out of Ægypt, that Obeliske which was erected and set up in the Vaticane hill, within the Cirque there, together with the foure entire stones which bare up said Obeliske as supporters; it was seene of a wonderfull and inestimable height above all others: and certaine it is, that there was never knowne to flote upon the sea a more wonderfull ship than it was. She received 120000 Modij of Lentils for the very ballast; shee tooke up in length the greater part of the left side of Hostia harbour: for Claudius the Emperour caused it there to be sunke, together with three mightie great piles of dams founded upon it, and mounted to the height of towers, for which purpose there was brought a huge quantitie of earth or sand from Puteoli. The maine bodie of this mast contained in compasse foure fadome full. And a common by-word it is, currant in every mans mouth, that Fir masts for that purpose, are usually sold for eight hundred Sesterces apeece, and more monie: whereas for the most part plankes which are set together and serve instead of boats, ordinarily cost but fortie. Howbeit, the kings of Ægypt and Syria, for default and want of Fir, have used (by report) in steed thereof Cedar wood about their shipping. And verily, the voice goeth of an exceeding big one which grew in Cyprus, and was cut downe for a mast to serve that mightie galleace of king Demetrius, that had eleven bankes of oares to a side; a hundred and thirtie foot it was high, and three fatham thicke. And no marvell, since that the pyrates and rovers who haunt the coasts of Germanie, make their punts or troughs of one entire peece of wood and no more, wrought hollow in manner of a boat, and some of them will hold thirtie men.

To proceed now unto the sundrie natures of wood. The most massie and fast wood, and therefore the weightiest of all other, by judgement of men, is that of the Ebene and the Boxe: both small trees by nature. Neither of them twain swimmeth above the water, no more will the Corke wood, if it be barked, nor the Larch. Of all the rest, the saddest52 wood is that of Lotus, I meane that which at Rome is so called. Next to it, is the heart of Oke, namely, when it is rid of the white sappie wood: the heart (I say) which commeth neare to a blacke colour: and yet the Cytisus or Tretrifolie is blacker, and seemeth most to resemble the Ebene. Howbeit, you shall have some, who affirme that the Terebinths of Syria bee blacker than it. There was one Thericles a famous turner, who was wont to make drinking cups, mazers, and bowles of the Terebinth; which is sufficient proofe, that the wood is fine and hard.

204 Spississima ex omni materie 205 celebravit et Thericles nomine calices ex terebintho 206 ab iis proxima est cornus, 207 de cetero plerisque horum, sed utique robori 208 (77) Exploratum hoc usus in castric pastorumque repperit ADOBE 278 mid right (4 lines down in H) 275 1635 622 Pliny 12-16 76 Teubner next errata 490.48. pouderons r. ponderous. 491.12. Barchus, r. Bacchus. 40 foure years r. fourehundred yeares. 495.3 Lucane r. Vulcan. 501.47 to prosper or, r. to prosper better or. 502.52 grafting. r. fasing. 504.12 hungrie, bitter r. hungrie and bitter. 39. Tenara r. Tenerra 55. ast r. tast.

Text Decoration


NOTES

1. Shown before: In Book XIII, Chap. XIII.

a i. The low countries of Zeland &c. [The Cauchi or Chauci are mentioned in Book IV, Chap. XIV and Chap. XV.]

2. Demerit: in its original and now obsolete sense of “desert, deserving, merit”. The (originally perfective) de was interpreted early on as a privative in the Romance languages and back into medieval Latin; and the two meanings coexisted in English for quite a while. Cf. describe, declaim, declare, etc., which retain more or less the original sense. Pliny’s meritum. On the granting of the civic crown to the emperors, see for instance Appian Civil Wars II.106, Valerius Maximus II.8.

b As the manner was to receive the Hieronicus.

3. Siccius Dentatus, as noted before: VII.102.

4. Spoken of manna before: XI § 30. Pliny does not use the word manna.

5. Cusculium or Quisquilium: Pliny has cusculium. Quisquilium is supplied from Festus.

6. Spoken of scarlet dye: In Book IX, Chap. 41.

7. Treatise of Ointments: Book XII, § 108.

8. Daintie dames: Pliny writes “praeterea in hiberno feminarum calceatu”, which would hardly seem to be sufficient grounds for the extended translation and satirical tone. Compare, however, the words of the Comic Alexis as presented by Clement of Alexandria, Paedagog. III.

9. Shindles: i.e., wooden shingles.

10. Trees aforesaid in the East: Book XIV, Chap. 20, § 122.

11. Pine-nuts, as we have already written: Book XV, Chap. 10.

12. Larch: see Vitruvius II.9.14.

13. Cedrium: or more properly, it is like what the Syrians call cedrium, which comes, reasonably enough, from cedar. See for instance Vitruvius Book II, Chap. 9 and Dioscorides, Book I.

c Palimpissa, i. Stone-pitch. [The word Dioscorides uses, from πάλιν + πίσσα. I’m not sure that Stone-pitch is a correct translation, as stone-pitch is hardened while the pitch in question is still liquid?]

d. πεύκη.

14. Pissasphaltum: Piscasphaltum in the text, corrected errata, πισσάσφαλτον. Holland takes the word from Theopompus; it is not in Pliny, which has pix fossilis.

15. Shown before in our treatise of nut kernels: Book XV, Chap. 10. Holland’s translation here (in Book XVI) is peculiar.

e Chap. 39 of this booke.

16. Achilles’ ashen spear: Homer Iliad 20.277.

17. Citron-wood: Holland may be following the reading of Gronovius, citro similis, for the textual cedro similis. Theophrastus (III) is the source, but he is talking about yew, μελία, not ash, μίλος. There seems to be confusion throughout; see the next note as well.

18. Theophrastus (III.10) says this rather of yew: if “beasts of burden” eat yew, they die; but it is harmless to ruminants.

19. Bazen ropes: that is, ropes of bast; the modern use of bass for the linden is a corruption of the original bast.

f Plinie herein is deceived. For the Line-tree with us, is comparable to the highest Okes in talnesse.

20. We have said: XV, chap. 7.

g Taken by some, to be our Aspe.

21. In other countries it serveth for wooll: e.g., among the “Seres”, see VI, chap. 37.

22. Date leaves (as we have said before): in XIII, chap. 4.

23. Cato: 5.8, 30.1, 6.3, etc.

24. Mares in Spain, as we wrote before: VIII, chap. 42.

h Ex Theophr. Διὸς βάλανος. [I.e., read juglandes for Pliny’s glandes, following the reading in Theophrastus Hist. III.cap. 6]

25. Third book ensuing after this: Book 18, § 201. [This is a tiny lesson in what Romans may mean when they say things like “the third book after this”, which we would probably take to mean Book 19.]

i Solstitium.

26. On these various trees (apricots, “tuberes”, plums, etc.) see Book XV, chaps. 12–14.

27. Zamiæ: thus Gronovius. Read azaniæ.

j Οδυσ. κ. ὠλεσίκαρπος. Frugiperda.

28. Date tree containeth fruit within pellicules, as said before: XIII sect. 30

29. By the sea side: reading with the Cologne 1524 edition (and with Varro I.7.6 ) mare for Matroon, Matroum, etc.

30. Of which place in Africa more later: XVIII. sect. 188.

k To wit, by caprification.

l All this Theophrastus reporteth of Ilex, and not of Buxus. [Holland’s note because the editions of Pliny in his day here read Buxus. Modern editions generally emend to Ilex, following Pliny’s source text.]

31. More of Hyphear anon: in sect. 245 (where it is associated with ilex).

32. Lotus: One (or more) of the genus Sorbus, probably Sorbus domestica but possibly including others, Sorbus torminalis etc.

33. 40 cubits: Thus in Pliny. Hardouin suggests that quadraginta is an error for quatuor et viginti, the number in Pliny’s source, Theophrastus Hist. III.13. This passage is in any case quite a bit skewed from the source, which says simply that the tree “ὁ κέρασός”, bird-cherry, can be 24 cubits high, and as much as two cubits around at the base. Though if it is the tree usually identified, Prunus avium, it can certainly be 40 cubits tall.

34. Vergil: Georg. II.291, “Esculus in primis, quæ quantum vertice ad auras Ætherias, tantum radice in tartara tendit”.

m namely, Theophrastus. [Theoprastus Hist. Plant. I.vii.1; compare II.v.2, which Pliny refers to in a few sentences: “… a plant which is naturally deep-rooting pushes much deeper if it finds either a deep mass of soil or a position which favours such growth or again the kind of ground which favors it. In fact, a man once said that when he was transplanting a fir which he had uprooted with levers, he found that it had a root more than eight cubits long, though the whole of it had not been removed, but it was broken off.”].

35. We shall speak of in a separate book: in Book XVII.

36. As we have shown before: Book XII, Chap. III.

37. Cato speaks of cypress more than any other tree: I do not think this is accurate. See R.R. 48 and 51.

38. Storie-workes in colours: Holland reads with the editions of his day (and the MSS) “operi historiarum”, or “opere historiali,” “operistoriarii” rather than the more likely “operis topiarii”: they carved the cypress into shapes: dolphhins, centaurs, dogs, ducks — as we still do.

39. We will write more at large about Laserpitium and Benjoine: In Book XIX.

40. Mayhoff, following Urlich’s Vindiciarum Plinianarum 277, corrects 430 to 440 years and moves the entire statement from after crassoque to before negaverat Theophrastus; if correct this would make the text read:

Hereafter we will write more at large in our treatise of herbes. There sprung up a very forest or wood neere unto Rome, by reason of a certaine thick and glutinous shoure like to Pitch, than then fell.

It is said, that now the Ivie tree groweth also in Asia: and yet Theophrastus delivered the contrary, and affirmed, that neither it was to be found around Rome about the year 440 AUC, nor yet throughout all India, but only upon the mount Merus.

41. in Media: Pliny’s in Medis. Hardouin, quoting Piny’s source in Theophrastus, pointss out that it was anot in Media but in Babylon that Harpalus attempted to introduce ivy. “not Media here, but Babylon, seat of the empire of the Medians.” Enquiry into Plants IV.iv.1 καίτοι γε διεφιλοτιμήθη Ἅρπαλος ἐν τοῖς παραδείσοις τοῖς περὶ Βαβυλῶνα φυτεύων πολλάκις καὶ πραγματευόμενος, ἀλλ᾽ οὐδέν ἐποίει πλέον. On Harpalus see Quintus Curtius X.

n Corymbi: 1601 Coryuti, corrected errata.

42. Ivy wood cups: Cissybium, says Macrobius (κισσούβιον), Saturnalia V.21.11–13.

o Reeds and Canes necessary in time of war : For Arrowes and Darts; and peace: For writing pens and delightsom pleasures of this world For Flutes and Pipes. [Holland’s 3 marginal notes.

43. Archer’s reed, as we showed before: § 161.

p Those abut Lacedæmon: Varia, or Versicolor, ποικίλα, Theoph. i. of divers colours.

q Adarca: Calamachne [thus Pliny XXXII, cap. 52; XX, cap 88].

44. Cato esteems willow in third place <>De re rustica I.1.7.

r Vitelina: Or Vitellinam rather, for the yellow colour of the yoke of egges. [Vitellinam is a reading of Ruellius. The MSS all have Nitelinam, “a colore flavo, vel rubro: eadem quæ græca rubens”. The color of the nitela or nitedula that Pliny mentions at the end of Chap. 57 of Book VIII, possibly a (shiny) field mouse (as Holland translates nitelis).]

s Spears: Theophrastus writeth thus of the Cornell tree. [Dalechamps suggests reading for “et sambuci … traduntur; namque qui venabula” “et sambuci … traduntur. E corno, qui venabula…”, i.e., “The inward part of the Elder is wonderous and hard and tough. And of the Cornell tree they make staves for Bore-speares… ”.]

45. In XVIII.271 and XVIII.313.

46. Cato: 31.

t Sapine: Sapine or, Carpine. [Pliny has sapino or sappino; editions of Cato have carpino.]

47. A little after: Cato 37.

48. Varro Lib. I de Re rust. 37.2.

49. Berries: reading with the editions of his day baccæ eius or vaccæ eius. Usually emended in modern editions to Vaccæis, “of the Vaccæans”, on whom see Book III chap. 3. “Junipers prove in Spain to be exceeding big and huge, and the largest those in the country of the Vaccaeans”.

50. Megara: Thus Theophrastus Hist. Plants V.2.4; in the Loeb translation, “For often some part of the tree itself is absorbed by the rest of the tree which has grown into it; and again, if one makes a hole in a tree and puts a stone into it or some other such thing, it becomes buried, being completely enveloped by the wood which grows all round it: this happened with the wild olive in the market-place at Megara; there was an oracle that, if this were cut open, the city would be taken and plundered, which came to pass when Demetrius took it. For, when this tree was split open, there were found greaves and certain other things of Attic workmanship hanging there, the hole in the tree having been made at the place where the things were originally hung on it as offerings. Of this tree a small part still exists, and in many other places further instances have occurred. Moreover, as has been said, such occurrences happen also with various other trees” On [Pericles’] destruction of Megara see Diod. Sic. XII.44.

51. Foresaid bridge: above, §190. Amphitheatre: Book XIX.

52. Saddest: presumably in its (rare/obsolete) meaning solid, dense, compact. The text of Pliny varies in the editions here: spississima; sciscima; scissima; siccissima (the reading of manuscripts). Hardouin notes of siccissima “Ita MSS. Theophr. [V.3] Τῶν δ᾽ ἄλλων ὁ λωτός [πυκνότατος], spississima. Sed de Africana” (and therefore presumably dry). I do not know if Hardouin means this as an argument that the MSS are correct or an explanation of how Pliny might have slipped up.]

451.48 laurell-braunched, r. laurell-branch 458.24 the mast, r. that mast 461.30 parts of France, r. parts of Italie 464.21 in the margent Palimpassa, read Palimpissa 465.6 Piscasphaltum, r. Pissasphaltum 466.9 cataplaster, r. cataplasme 470.14 frugous r. fungous still need to finish excursus 2 note 78 on the ruminal and navia figs etc.