94 S Y L V A BOOK i 



head, you suddenly cut it down, the body decaying 

 more than the head is worth : The same he pro- 

 nounces of taller ashes, and where the wood-peckers 

 make holes (who constantly indicate their being 

 faulty) to fell it in the Winter. I am astonish'd at 

 the universal confidence of some, that a serpent will 

 rather creep into the fire, than over a twig of ash ; 

 this is an old imposture of 1 Pliny's, who either took 

 it up upon trust, or we mistake the tree. Other 

 species, see Ray Dendrolog. t. HI. lib. xxx. p. 95. De 

 fraxlno^ t. n. p. 1704. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Of the Chesnut. 



i. The next is the chesnut, \castanea\ of which 

 Pliny reckons many kinds, especially about Tarentum 

 and Naples ; Janus Cornarius, upon that of Aetius, 

 (verbo Apvc) speaks of the Lopimi, as a nobler kind, 

 such as the Euboicte, which the Italians call marom, 

 quasi castanea maris ; but we commend those of Por- 

 tugal or Bayonne, chusing the largest, brown, and 

 most ponderous for fruit, such as Pliny calls cocttva, 

 but the lesser ones to raise for timber. They are 

 produc'd best by sowing and setting ; previous to 

 which, let the nuts be first spread to sweat, then 

 cover them in sand ; a month being past, plunge 

 them in water, reject the swimmers ; being dry'd, 

 for thirty days more, sand them again, and to the 

 water-ordeal as before. Being thus treated till the 



1 V. ChurasJunt, &c. de viperis. 



