n6 SYLVA BOOK i 



not be indulg'd in pollards, or spreading trees, but to 

 thicken under-woods and copses. The timber is far 

 superior to beech for all uses of the turner, who seeks 

 it for dishes, cups, trays, trenchers, &c. as the joyner 

 for tables, inlayings, and for the delicateness of the 

 grain, when the knurs and nodosities are rarely diapred, 

 which does much advance its price : Our turners 

 will work it so thin, that it is almost transparent : 

 Also for the lightness (under the name Aier) imploy'd 

 often by those who make musical instruments : Also 

 that especially, which grows in Friuli, Carniola, and 

 Saltzburglandt : There is a larger sort, which we call 

 the sycomor. 



2. But the description of this lesser maple, and the 

 ancient value of it, is worth the citing. Acer operum 

 elegantid, & subtilitate cedro secundum ; plura e jus genera: 

 Alburn^ quod praecipui candoris ^ocatur Gallicum : In 

 Transpadana Italia , transque Alpes nascens. A her urn 

 genus, crispo macularum discursu, qui cum excellentior 

 fuit, a similitudine caudce pa^onum nomen accepit. 4 The 

 4 maple, (says Pliny) for the elegancy and fineness of 

 c the wood, is next to the very cedar it self. There 

 4 are several kinds of it, especially the white, which 

 4 is wonderfully beautiful ; this is call'd the French- 

 4 maple, and grows in that part of Italy, that is on the 

 ' other side of Po beyond the Alpes : The other has 

 4 a curl'd grain, so curiously maculated, that from a 

 4 near resemblance, it was usually call'd the Peacock's- 

 4 tail, Gfc. He goes on to commend that of Istria, 

 and that growing on the mountains for the best : But 

 in the next chapter ; Pulcherrimum $ero est bruscum, 

 multoque excellentius etiamnum mollusculum, tuber utrum- 

 que arboris ejus. Eruscum intortius crispum, molluscum 

 simplicius spar sum ; et si magnitudmem mensarum caper et, 



