CHAP, in S Y L V A 39 



(some of which have contain'd ten loads apiece) out 

 of the very walls of Silcester in Hantshire, which 

 seem to strike root in the very stones ; and even in 

 our renowned Forest of Dean itself, some goodly 

 oaks have been noted to grow upon ground, which 

 has been as it were a rock of ancient cinders, buried 

 there many ages since. It is indeed obser'd, that 

 oaks which grow in rough stony grounds, and obsti- 

 nate clays, are long before they come to any consi- 

 derable stature, (for such places, and all sort of clay, 

 is held but a step-mother to trees) but in time they 

 afford the most excellent timber, having stood long, 

 and got good footing. The same may we affirm of 

 the lightest sands, which produces a smoother-grain'd 

 timber, of all other the most useful for the joyner ; 

 but that which grows in gravel is subject to be frow 

 (as they term it) and brittle. What improvement 

 the stirring of the ground about the roots of oaks is 

 to the trees, I have already hinted ; and yet in 

 copses where they stand warm, and so thicken'd 

 with the underwood, as this culture cannot be 

 practis'd, they prove in time to be goodly trees. I 

 have of late tried the graffing of oaks, but as yet 

 with slender success : Ruellius indeed affirms it will 

 take the pear and other fruit ; and if we may credit 

 the poet, 



The sturdy oak does golden apples bear. 

 * And under elms swine do the mast devour. 



1 Aurea durae 



Mala ferant quercpus. 

 Eel. 8. 



* Glandemque sues fregere sub ITlmo. 



Gear. 



