CHAP, viz S Y L V A 91 



'tis hardly to be distinguished from the most curi- 

 ously diaper'd olive, they varnish their work with 

 the china-varnish, (hereafter described) which infi- 

 nitely excels linseed-oyl, that Cardan so commends, 

 speaking of this root. The truth is, the bruscum and 

 molluscum to be frequently found in this wood, is 

 nothing inferior to that of maple, (of which here- 

 after) being altogether as exquisitely diaper'd, and 

 wav'd like the gamahes of Achates ; an eminent 

 example of divers strange figures of fish, men and 

 beasts, Dr. Plott speaks of to be found in a dining- 

 table made of an old ash, standing in a gentleman's 

 house somewhere in Oxfordshire : Upon which is 

 mention'd that of Jacobus Gaffarellus, in his book of 

 Unheard-of Curiosities ; namely of a tree found in Hol- 

 land, which being cleft, had in the several slivers, 

 the figures of a chalice, a priest's albe, his stole, and 

 several other pontifical vestments : Of this sort was 

 the elm growing at Middle-Aston in Oxfordshire, a 

 block of which wood being cleft, there came out a 

 piece so exactly resembling a shoulder of veal, that it 

 was worthy to be reckon'd among the curiosities of 

 this nature. 



4. The use of ash is (next to that of the oak it 

 self) one of the most universal : It serves the soldier 



& Fraxinus utilis hastis^ and heretofore the 



scholar, who made use of the inner bark to write on, 

 before the invention of paper, &c. The carpenter, 

 wheel-wright, cart-wright, for ploughs, axle-trees, 

 wheel-rings, harrows, bulls, oares, the best blocks for 

 pullies and sheffs, as seamen name them ; for drying 

 herrings, no wood like it, and the bark for the tanning 

 of nets ; and, like the elm, for the same property (of 

 not being so apt to split and scale) excellent for tenons 



