244 S Y L V A BOOK n 



thinks) a kind of cedar ; (yet we find fir also in the 

 same period) for we have seen a whiter sort of it, 

 even very white as well as red ; though some affirm 

 it to be but the sap of it (so our cabinet-makers call 

 it) I say, there were both fir and pine-trees also 

 growing upon those mountains, and the learned 

 Meibomius, (in that curious treatise of his De Fabrica 

 Triremium) shews that there were such trees brought 

 out of India, or Ophir. In the mean time, Mr. 

 Purchas informs us, that Dr. Dee writ a laborious 

 treatise almost wholly of this subject, (but I could 

 never have the good hap to see it) wherein, as 

 commissioner for Solomon's timber, and like a learned 

 architect and planter, he has summon'd a jury of 

 twelve sorts of trees; namely, i. the fir, 2. box, 

 3. cedar, 4. cypress, 5. ebony, 6. ash, 7. juniper, 

 8. larch, 9. olive, 10. pine, 11, oak, and 12. sandal- 

 trees, to examine which of them were this almugim^ 

 and at last seems to concur with Josephus, in favour 

 of pine or fir ; who possibly, from some antient 

 record, or fragment of the wood it self, might learn 

 something of it ; and 'tis believ'd, that it was some 

 material both odoriferous to the scent, and beautiful 

 to the eye, and of fittest temper to refract sounds ; 

 besides its serviceableness for building ; all which 

 properties are in the best sort of pine or thyina^ as 

 Pliny calls it ; or perhaps some other rare wood, of 

 which the Eastern Indies are doubtless the best 

 provided ; and yet I find, that those vast beams which 

 sustain'd the roof of St. Peter's church at Rome, laid 

 (as reported) by Constantine the Great, were made 

 of the pitch-tree, and have lasted from anno 336, 

 down to our days, above 1300 years. 



13. But now whilst I am reciting the uses of these 



