300 NATURAL HISTORY. 



curling on the sides ; as in lettuce, and young cab 

 bage : and the third is folding into an head ; as in 

 cabbage full grown, and cabbage-lettuce. 



652. It is reported, that fir and pine, especially 

 if they be old and putrified, though they shine not as 

 some rotten woods do, yet in the sudden breaking 

 they will sparkle like hard sugar. 



653. The roots of trees do some of them put 

 downwards deep into the ground ; as the oak, pine, 

 fir, &c. Some spread more toward the surface of 

 the earth ; as the ash, cypress-tree, olive, &c. The 

 cause of this latter may be, for that such trees as 

 love the sun, do not willingly descend far into 

 the earth, and therefore they are, commonly, trees 

 that shoot up much ; for in their body their desire 

 of approach to the sun maketh them spread the less. 

 And the same reason under ground, to avoid recess 

 from, the sun, maketh them spread the more. And 

 we see it cometh to pass in some trees which have 

 been planted too deep in the ground, that for love 

 of approach to the sun, they forsake their first root, 

 and put out another more towards the top of the 

 earth. And we see also, that the olive is full of oily 

 juice ; and ash maketh the best fire, and cypress is 

 an hot tree. As for the oak, which is of the former 

 sort, it loveth the earth, and therefore groweth 

 slowly. And for the pine and fir likewise, they have 

 so much heat in themselves, as they need less the 

 heat of the sun. There be herbs also that have the 

 same difference ; as the herb they call morsus dia- 

 boli ; which putteth forth the root down so low, as you 



