CHAP, in S Y L V A 225 



a black, thick, large cone, including the kernel 

 within an hard shell, cover'd under a thick scale : 

 The nuts of this tree (not much inferior to the 

 almond) are used among other ingredients, in beatilla- 

 pies, at the best tables. They would be gather'd in 

 June, before they gape ; yet having hung two years 

 (for there will be always some ripe, and some green 

 on the same tree) preserve them in their nuts, inf 

 sand, as you treat acorns, G?c. 'till the season invitej 

 and then set or sow them in ground which is culti- 

 vated like the fir, in most respects ; only, you may 

 bury the nuts a little deeper. By a friend of mine, 

 they were rolled in a fine compost made of sheeps- 

 dung, and scatter'd in February, and this way never 

 fail'd fir and pine ; they came to be above inch-high 

 by May ; and a Spanish author tells us, that to 

 macerate them five days in a child's urine, and three 

 days in water, is of wonderful effect : This were an 

 expeditious process for great plantations ; unless you 

 would rather set the pine as they do pease, but at 

 wider distances, that when there is occasion of 

 removal, they might be taken up with the earth and 

 all, I say, taken up, and not remov'd by evulsion ; 

 because they are (of all other trees) the most obnox- 

 ious to miscarry without this caution ; and therefore 

 it were much better (where the nuts might be com- 

 modiously set, and defended) never to remove them 

 at all, it gives this tree so considerable a check. The 

 safest course of all, were to set the nuts in an earthen- 

 pot, and in frosty weather, shewing it a little to the 

 fire, the intire clod will come out with them, which 

 are to be reserved, and set in the naked earth, in 

 convenient and fit holes prepar'd beforehand, or so 

 soon as the thaw is universal : Some commend the 



