ia6 SYLVA 



BOOK I 



tionum Exordiis : A piece inestimable, never publish'd ; 

 is now in the library at Vienna, after it had formerly 

 been the greatest rarity in that of the late Cardinal 

 Mazarine : Other papyraceous trees are mention'd by 

 West-Indian travellers, especially in Hispaniola, Java, 

 &c. which not only exceed our largest paper for 

 breadth and length, and may be written on on both 

 sides, but is comparable to our best vellum. Bellon- 

 ius says, that the Grecians made bottles of the tilia> 

 which they finely rozin'd within-side, so likewise for 

 pumps of ships, also lattices for windows : Shooemak- 

 ers use dressers of the plank to cut leather on, as not 

 so hard as to turn the edges of their knives ; and even 

 the coursest membrane, or slivers of the tree growing 

 'twixt the bark and the main body, they now twist 

 into bass-ropes ; besides, the truncheons make a far 

 better coal for gun-powder than that of alder it self ; 

 Scriblets for painters first draughts are also made of 

 its coals ; and the extraordinary candor and lightness, 

 has dignify'd it above all the woods of our forest, in 

 the hands of the Right Honourable the White-Stave 

 officers of His Majesty's Imperial Court. Those 

 royal plantations of these trees in the parks of Hamp- 

 ton-court, and St. James's, will sufficiently instruct 

 any man how these (and indeed all other trees which 

 stand single) are to be govern'd, and defended from 

 the injuries of beasts, and sometimes more unreason- 

 able creatures, till they are able to protect themselves. 

 In Holland (where the very high-ways are adorn'd 

 with them) they frequently clap three or four deal- 

 boards (in manner of a close trunk) about them ; but 

 it is not so well ; because it keeps out the air, which 

 should have free access and intercourse to the bole, 

 and by no means be excluded from flowing freely 



