CHAP, xi S YL V A 119 



pores ? For example, in the walnut, you shall find, 

 when 'tis old, that the wood is admirably figur'd, 

 and, as it were, marbl'd, and therefore much more 

 esteem'd by the joyners, cabinet-makers, and outrages 

 de marqueterie, in-layers, &c. than the young, which 

 is paler of colour, and without any notable grain, 

 as they call it. For the rain distilling along the 

 branches, when many of them break out into clusters 

 from the stem, sinks in, and is the cause of these 

 marks ; since we find it exceedingly full of pores : 

 Do but plane off a thin chip, or sliver from one of 

 these old trees, and interposing it 'twixt your eye and 

 the light, you shall observe it to be full of innumer- 

 able holes (much more perspicuous and ample, by 

 the application of a good l microscope.) But above 

 all, notable for these extravagant damaskings and 

 characters, is the maple ; and 'tis notorious, that this 

 tree is very full of branches from the root to its very 

 summit, by reason that it produces no considerable 

 fruit : These arms being frequently cut, the head is 

 more surcharged with them, which spreading like so 

 many rays from a centre, form that hollowness at the 

 top of the stem whence they shoot, capable of con- 

 taining a good quantity of water every time it rains : 

 This sinking into the pores, as was before hinted, is 

 compell'd to divert its course as it passes through the 

 body of the tree, where-ever it encounters the knot of 

 any of those branches which were cut off from the 

 stem ; because their roots not only deeply penetrate 

 towards the heart, but are likewise of themselves very 

 hard and impervious ; and the frequent obliquity of 

 this course of the subsiding moisture, by reason of 

 these obstructions, is, as may be conceived, the cause 



1 Not invented in Palissy's days. 



