CHAP, ii SYLVA 217 



neously ; but its fruit seems not so tempting as it is 

 storied it was to the companions of Ulysses : The 

 first who brought the lotus out of Virginia, was the 

 late industrious Tradescant. Of this wood are made 

 pipes, and wind-instruments, and of its root, hafts for 

 knives and other tools, GPc. The offer of Crassus to 

 Domitius for half a dozen of these trees, growing about 

 an house of his in Rome, testifies in what esteem they 

 were had for their incomparable beauty and use. 



The Cornell tree, though not mention'd by Pliny 

 for its timber, is exceedingly commended for its dur- 

 ableness, and use in wheelwork, pinns and wedges, in 

 which it lasts like the hardest iron ; and it will grow 

 with us to good bulk and stature ; and the preserv'd 

 and pickl'd berries, (or cherries rather) are most 

 refreshing, an excellent condiment, and do also well 

 in tarts. But that is very old, which Mathiolus 

 affirms upon his own experience, that one who has 

 been bitten of a mad-dog, if in a year after he handle 

 the wood of this tree till it grow warm, relapses again 

 into his former distemper. 



The same reported of the cornus femina^ or wild 

 cornel ; which is like the former for compactedness, 

 and made use of for cart-timber, and other rustick 

 instruments; besides, for the best of butchers skewers, 

 tooth-pickers, and in some countries abroad they 



decoct the berries, which press'd, yield an oyl for the 



, * J 



lamp. 



Lastly, the acacia, and that of Virginian, deserves 

 a place among our avenue trees, (could they be made 

 to grow upright) adorning our walks with their 

 exotic leaf, and sweet flowers ; very hardy against 

 the pinching Winter, but not so proof against its 

 blustring winds ; though it be arm'd with thorns : 



b 



