CHAP, iv SYLVA 271 



for caution, clip not your cypresses late in Autumn, 

 and cloath them (if young) against these winds ; for 

 the frosts they only discolour them, but seldom, or 

 never hurt them, as by long experience I have found ; 

 nor altogether despair of the resurrection of a cypress, 

 subverted by the wind ; for some have redress'd 

 themselves ; and one (as Ziphilinus mentions) that 

 rose the very next day ; which happening about the 

 reign of the emperor Vespasian, was esteem'd an 

 happy omen : But of such accidents, more hereafter. 



1 1 . If you affect to see your cypress in standard, 

 and grow wild, (which may in time come to be of a 

 large substance, fit for the most immortal of timber, 

 and indeed are the least obnoxious to the rigours of 

 our Winters, provided you never clip or disbranch 

 them) plant of the reputed male-sort ; it is a tree 

 which will prosper wonderfully ; and where the 

 ground is hot and gravelly, though (as we said) he be 

 nothing so beautiful ; and it is of this, that the 

 Venetians make their greatest profit. 



12. I have already shew'd how this tree is to be 

 rais'd from the seed ; but there was another method 

 amongst the Ancients, who (as I told you) were wont 

 to make great plantations of them for their timber ; 

 I have practis'd it my self, and therefore describe it. 



13. If you receive your seed in the roundish small 

 nuts, which use to be gather'd thrice a year, (but 

 seldom ripening with us) expose them to the sun till 

 they gape, or near a gentle fire, or put them in warm 

 water, (as was directed in those of cedar) by which 

 means the seeds will be easily shaken out ; for if you 

 have them open before, they do not yield you half 

 their crop : About the beginning of April (or before, 

 if the weather be showery) prepare an even bed, 



