1 40 S Y L V A BOOK i 



filberts, a kinder and better sort of hasel-nut, of larger 

 and longer shape and beard ; the kernels also cover'd 

 with a fine membrane, of which the red is more deli- 

 cate : They both are propagated as the hasel, and 

 while more domestick, planted either asunder, or in 

 palisade, are seldom found in the copp'ces : They 

 are brought among other fruit, to the best tables for 

 desert, and are said to fatten, but too much eaten, 

 obnoxious to the asthmatic. In the mean time, of 

 this I have had experience ; that hasel-nuts, but the 

 filberd specially, being full ripe, and peel'd in warm 

 water, (as they blanch almonds) make a pudding 

 very little (if at all) inferior to that our ladies make 

 of almonds. But I am now come to the water-side; 

 let us next consider the aquatic. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Of the Kirch. 



i. The birch [betula, in British bedw, doubtless a 

 proper indigene of England, (whence some derive the 

 name of Barkshire) though Pliny calls it a Gaulish 

 tree] is altogether produc'd of roots or suckers, (though 

 it sheds a kind of samera about the Spring) which 

 being planted at four or five foot interval, in small 

 twigs, will suddenly rise to trees ; provided they affect 

 the ground, which cannot well be too barren, or 

 spongy ; for it will thrive both in the dry, and the 

 wet, sand, and stony, marshes, and bogs ; the water- 

 galls, and uliginous parts of forests that hardly bear any 

 grass, do many times spontaneously produce it in abund- 



