152 O I L, V A BOOK I 



wounds and notches, they yearly draw forth the 

 liquor, till it arrive to near thirty foot upward, and 

 of these they have ample groves and plantations 

 which they set at seven or eight foot distance : 

 But then they use to percolate what they extract, 

 through a stratum made of the rind of the tree, well 

 contus'd and beaten, before which preparation, it is 

 not safe to drink it ; and 'tis observed that some trees 

 afford a much more generous wine than others of the 

 same kind. In the coco and palmeto trees, they 

 chop a bough, as we do the betula ; but in the date, 

 make the incision with a chisel in the body very 

 neatly, in which they stick a leaf of the tree, as a 

 lingula to direct it into the appendant vessel, which 

 the subjoin'd figure represents, and illustrates with its 

 improvement to our former discourse. 



Note, if there be no fitting arms, the hole thus 

 obliquely perforated, and a faucet or pipe made of a 

 swan's or goose's quill inserted, will lead the sap into 

 the recipient; and this is a very neat way, and as effect- 

 ual : I would also have it try'd, whether the very top 

 twigs, grasped in the hand together, a little cropt 

 with a knife, and put into the mouth of a bottle, 

 would not instil, if not as much, yet a more refined 

 liquor, as some pretend. 



8. The liquor of the birch is esteemed to have all 

 the virtues of the spirit of salt, without the danger 

 of its acrimony ; most powerful for the dissolving of 

 the stone in the bladder, bloody water and strangury : 

 Helmont shews how to make a beer of the water ; 

 but the wine is a most rich cordial, curing (as I am 

 told) consumptions, and such interior diseases as ac- 

 company the stone in the bladder or reins 1 : The juice 



1 De Lithiasi, c. 8. n. 24, 25, &c. 



