( 129 ) 



from the various foreftsofthe empire. Among 

 other mafTy pieces of timber, which were 

 brought to Rome on this occafion, the trunk 

 of a larch was of fo prodigious a fize, that 

 the emperor, inftead of uling it in his works, 

 ordered it to be laid up as a curiofity. It 

 meafured a hundred and twenty feet in 

 length, carrying a diameter of two feet to 

 the very end*. When this larch was alive, 

 with all the furniture of it's vaft top, and 

 gigantic limbs, in proportion to fuch a trunk, 

 it muft have been an aftonifhing tree. 



The large ft tree that ever was known to be 

 brought into Britain, formed the main mail 

 of the Royal Sovereign in queen Ann's time. 

 It was ninety feet long ; and thirty-five inches 

 in diameter -f-. 



Mr. Evelin, from whom we have this 

 account, mentions in the fame place, a ftill 

 larger tree, which formed the keel of the 

 Crown, a French fhip of the laft century. 

 It was a hundred and twenty feet long, 



* Plin. Nat. hift. 1. xvi. c. 40. f Sylva, p. 228. 



VOL. i. K which 



