LIFE AND DEATH. 317 



14. But many hot herbs bear their age and years better; 

 hyssop, thyme, savory, pot marjoram, balm, wormwood, 

 germander, sage, and the like. Fennel dies yearly in the 

 stalk, buds again from the root ; but pulse and sweet mar 

 joram can better endure age than winter, for being set in a 

 very warm place and well fenced, they will live more than 

 one year. It is known that a knot of hyssop twice a year 

 shorn hath continued forty years. 



15. Bushes and shrubs live threescore years, and some 

 double as much. A vine may attain to threescore years, 

 and continue fruitful in the old age. Rosemary well placed 

 will come also to threescore years ; but whitethorn and ivy 

 endure above a hundred years. As for the bramble, the 

 age thereof is not certainly known, because bowing the head 

 to the ground it gets new roots, so as you cannot distinguish 

 the old from the new. 



16. Amongst great trees the longest livers are the oak, 

 the holm, wild ash, the elm, the beech tree, the chesnut, 

 the plane tree, ficus ruminalis, the lote tree, the wild olive, 

 the palm tree, and the mulberry tree. Of these some have 

 come to the age of eight hundred years ; but the least livers 

 of them do attain to two hundred. 



17. But trees odorate, or that have sweet woods, and 

 trees rozenny, last longer in their woods or timber than 

 those abovesaid, but they are not so long lived, as the 

 cypress tree, maple, pine, box, juniper. The cedar being 

 borne out by the vastness of his body, lives well near as long 

 as the former. 



18. The ash, fertile and forward in bearing, reacheth to 

 a hundred years and somewhat better ; which also the birch, 

 maple, and service tree, sometimes do; but the poplar, 

 lime tree, willow, and that which they call the sycamore, 

 and walnut tree, live not so long. 



19. The apple tree, pear tree, plum tree, pomegranate 

 tree, citron tree, medlar tree, black cherry tree, cherry 

 tree, may attain to fifty or sixty years; especially if they 

 be cleansed from the moss wherewith some of them are 

 clothed. 



20. Generally greatness of body in trees, if other things 

 be equal, hath some congruity with length of life ; so hath 

 hardness of substance ; and trees bearing mast or nuts are 

 commonly longer livers than trees bearing fruit or berries ; 

 likewise trees putting forth their leaves late, and shedding 

 them late again, live longer than those that are early either 

 in leaves or fruit ; the like is of wild trees in comparison of 



