32 S Y L V A BOOK i 



very rugged, the branches loaded with a long moss 

 hanging down like dishevell'd hair which much 

 annoys it. <&ayog is indeed doubtless a species of oak; 

 however by the Latins usually apply'd to the beech, 

 whose leaf exceedingly differs from that of the oak, 

 as also the mast and bark rugged, and growing 

 among the hills and mountains ; the other in the 

 valleys, and perhaps, but few of them in Italy. 

 Physicians, naturalists and botanists should therefore 

 be curious how they describe and place such trees 

 mention'd by Theophrastus and others, under the 

 same denomination as frequently they do ; being 

 found so very different when accurately examin'd. 

 There is likewise the escu/us, which though Vitrifwu^ 

 Pliny r , Dalcampius and others take for a smaller kind, 

 Virgil celebrates for its spreading, and profound root ; 

 and this Dalcampius will therefore have to be the 

 platyphyllos of Theophrastus ^ and as our botanists 

 think, his phegos^ as producing the most edible fruit. 

 But to confine our selves ; the quercus urbana^ which 

 grows more upright, and being clean and lighter is 

 fittest for timber : And the robur^ or quercus si/vesfris, 

 (taking robur for the general name, if at least contra- 

 distinct from the rest) ; which (as the name imports) 

 is of a vast robust and inflexible nature, of an hard 

 black grain ; bearing a smaller acorn, and affecting 

 to spread in branches, and to put forth his roots 

 more above ground ; and therefore in the planting, 

 to be allow'd a greater distance, viz. from twenty 

 five, to forty foot ; (nay sometimes as many yards ;) 

 whereas the other shooting up more erect, will be 

 contented with fifteen. This kind is farther to be 

 distinguished by its fulness of leaves, which tarnish, 

 and becoming yellow at the fall, do commonly 



