132 S Y L V A BOOK i 



foot interval : They will likewise grow of layers, and 

 even of cuttings in very moist places. In three years, 

 they will come to an incredible altitude ; in twelve, 

 be as big as your middle ; and in eighteen or twenty, 

 arrive to full perfection. A specimen of this advance 

 we have had of an a6e/e-tree at Sion, which being 

 lopp'd in Febr. 1651, didlby the end of October 52, 

 produce branches as big as a man's wrist, and 1 7 foot 

 in length ; for which celerity we may recommend 

 them to such late builders, as seat their houses in naked 

 and unshelter'd places, and that would put a guise of 

 antiquity upon any new inclosure ; since by these, 

 whilst a man is in a voyage of no long continuance, 

 his house and lands may be so covered, as to be hardly 

 known at his return. But as they thus increase in 

 bulk, their value (as the Italian poplar, has taught us) 

 advances likewise ; which after the first seven years, 

 is annually worth twelve pence more : So as the Dutch 

 look upon a plantation of these trees, as an ample 

 portion for a daughter, and none of the least effects of 

 their good husbandry ; which truly may very well 

 be allow'd, if that calculation hold, which the late 

 worthy l Knight has asserted, (who began his plan- 

 tation not long since about Richmond,) that 30 

 pound being laid out in these plants, would render at 

 the least ten thousand pounds in eighteen years ; every 

 tree affording thirty plants, and every of them thirty 

 more, after each seven year's improving twelve pence 

 in growth, till they arrive to their acme. 



7. The black poplar grows rarely with us ; it is a 

 stronger and taller tree than the white, the leaves more 

 dark, and not so ample. Divers stately ones of these, 

 I remember about the banks of Po in Italy ; which 



I. Sir Richard Weston. 



