8o SYLVA BOOK i 



together, they continue sweet for seven or eight 

 years long, before which time straw becomes musty 

 and hard ; they are thus used by divers persons of 

 quality in Dauphine ; and in Swizzerland I have 

 sometimes lain on them to my great refreshment ; so 

 as of this tree it may properly be said, 



1 The wood's an house ; the leaves a bed. 



Being pruin'd it heals the scar immediately, and is 

 not apt to put forth so soon again as other trees. 



The stagnant water in the hollow-trees cures the 

 most obstinate tetters, scabs, and scurfs, in man or 

 beast, fomenting the part with it ; and the leaves 

 chewM are wholsome for the gums and teeth, for 

 which the very buds, as they are in winter hardned 

 and dried upon the twigs, make good tooth-pickers. 

 Swine may be driven to mast about the end of 

 August: But it is observed, that where they feed on't 

 before it be mature, it intoxicates them for a while ; 

 and that generally their fat is not so good and solid, 

 but drips away too soon. In the mean time, the 

 kernels of the mast are greedily devour 'd by squirels, 

 mice, and above all, the dormice, who harbouring in 

 the hollow-trees, grow so fat, that in some countries 

 abroad, they take infinite numbers of them, (I sup- 

 pose) to eat ; and what relief they give thrushes, 

 black-birds, feldefares and other birds, every body 

 knows. See Mithiolus mdioscord. 1. i. of what they 

 suffer in Carinthias, Carniola, and Itiria. Supplement 

 to this Tract, vid. Ray's torn. in. Lib. xxv. Dendro- 

 logia Fago. torn. n. p. 1382. 



.Silva domus, cubilia frondes. 



Juvenal. 



