CHAP, in S Y L V A 243 



cut small, contus'd, and boil'd in store of water, is an 

 excellent remedy for burns and scalds, washing the 

 sore with the decoction, and applying the softned 

 bark : It is also soveraign against frozen and benumb'd 

 limbs : The distill'd water of the green cones takes 

 away the wrinkles of the face, dipping cloaths therein, 

 and laying them on it becomes a cosmetic not to be 

 despis'd. The pine, or picea buried in the earth 

 never decay : From the latter transudes a very bright 

 and pellucid gum ; hence we have likewise rosin ; 

 also of the pine are made boxes and barrels for dry 

 goods ; yea, and it is cloven into (scatu/u/a) shingles 

 for the covering of houses in some places ; also hoops 

 for wine-vessels, especially of the easily flexible wild- 

 pine ; not to forget the kernels (this tree being 

 always furnish'd with cones, some ripe, others green) 

 of such admirable use in emulsions ; and for tooth- 

 pickers, even the very leaves are commended : In sum, 

 they are plantations which exceedingly improve the 

 air, by their odoriferous and balsamical emissions and, 

 for ornament, create a perpetual Spring where they 

 are plentifully propagated. And if it could be 

 proved that the a/mugim-trees, recorded l i Reg. 1 1 , 12. 

 (whereof pillars for that famous temple, and the royal 

 palace, harps, and psalteries, &c. were made) were of 

 this sort of wood (as some doubt not to assert) we 

 should esteem it at another rate ; yet we know 

 Josephus affirms they were a kind of pine-tree, though 

 somewhat resembling the fig-tree wood to appearance, 

 as of a most lustrous candor. In the 2 Chron. 2, 8. 

 there is mention of almug-trees to grow in Lebanon ; 

 and if so, methinks it should rather be (as Buxtorf 



1 Where the Lxx calls it arreXI/cT/ra, non dedolata; others ligna undulata 

 See Ezek. 27. 5, 6. 



