CHAP, iv S Y L V A 63 



elm, whose leaves are thicker, and more florid, gla- 

 brous and smooth, delighting in the lower and 

 moister grounds, where they will sometimes rise to 

 above an hundred foot in height, and a prodigious 

 growth, in less than an age ; my self having seen 

 one planted by the hand of a Countess living not 

 long since, which was near 1 2 foot in compass, and 

 of an height proportionable ; notwithstanding the 

 numerous progeny which grew under the shade of 

 it, some whereof were at least a foot in diameter, 

 that for want of being seasonably transplanted, must 

 needs have hindered the procerity of their ample 

 and indulgent mother : I am persuaded some of these 

 were viviradices, & traduces, produc'd of the falling 

 seeds. 



2. For though both these sorts are rais'd of append- 

 ices^ or suckers (as anon we shall describe) yet this 

 latter comes well from the samera or seeds, and 

 therefore I suppose it to be the ancient atinia> for 

 such an elm they acknowledge to be rais'd of seeds, 

 which being ripe about the beginning of March 

 (though frequently not till the following month) 

 will produce them ; as we might have seen abund- 

 antly in the gardens of the Thuilleries, and that of 

 Luxembourgh at Paris, where they usually sow 

 themselves, and come up very thick ; and so do they 

 in many places of our country, tho' so seldom taken 

 notice of, as that it is esteemed a fable, by the less 

 observant and ignorant vulgar ; let it therefore be 

 tried in season, by turning and raking some fine 

 earth, often refreshed, under some amply spreading 

 tree, or to raise them of their seeds (being well dried 

 a day or two before) sprinkled on beds prepar'd of 

 good loamy fresh earth, and sifting some of the finest 



