XXXIV PREFACE. 



Exiit ad coelum ramis felicibus arbos, 

 Miraturque novas frondes, et non sua poma." 



VIRGIL, Georgic ii. 



" 'Tis usual now an inmate graft to see 

 With insolence invade a foreign tree : 

 Thus pears and quinces from the crab-tree come, 

 And thus the ruddy cornel bears the plum. 



* * * # # -x- * 



The thin-leaved* arbute hazel-graffs receives, 

 And planes huge apples bear, that bore but leaves. 

 Thus mastful beech the bristly chestnut bears, 

 And the wild ash is white with blooming pears, 

 And greedy swine from grafted elms are fed 

 With falling acorns, that on oaks are bred. 



But various are the ways to change the state 

 Of plants, to bud, to graff, t' inoculate. 

 For where the tender rinds of trees disclose 

 Their shooting gems, a swelling knot there grows ; 

 Just in that place a narrow slit we make, 

 Then other buds from bearing trees we take ; 

 Inserted thus, the wounded rind we close, 

 In whose moist womb th' admitted infant grows. 

 But when the smoother bole from knots is free, 

 We make a deep incision in the tree, 

 And in the solid wood the slip enclose, 

 The batt'ning bastard shoots again and grows ; 

 And in short space the laden boughs arise, 

 With happy fruit advancing to the skies. 



* It is not easy to conjecture why the poet translates arbuta 

 horrida, the thin-leaved arbutus : the leaves are not in them- 

 selves thin, neither is the tree scantily furnished with them. 

 Martyn supposes the word horrida to signify the ruggedness of 

 the bark. 



