CHAP, vi S Y L V A 297 



inlayers, and for the parquete-floors, most gladly 

 employ it ; and in Germany they use to wainscot 

 their stoves with boards of this material : Also for 

 the cogs of mills, posts to be set in moist grounds, 

 and everlasting axel-trees, there is none to be compar- 

 ed with it ; likewise for the bodies of lutes, theorbo's, 

 bowles, wheels, and pins for pullies ; yea, and for 

 tankards to drink out of; whatever Pliny reports 

 concerning its shade, and the stories of the air about 

 Thasius, the fate of Cativulcus mention'd by Cassar, 

 and the ill report which the fruit has vulgarly obtain'd 

 in France, Spain, and Arcadia : But 



1 How are poor trees traduc'd ? 



5. The toxic quality was certainly in the liquor, 

 which those good fellows tippl'd out of those bottles, 

 not in the nature of the wood ; which yet he affirms 

 is cur'd of that venenous quality, by driving a brazen- 

 wedge into the body of it : This I have never tried, 

 but that of the shade and fruit I have frequently, 

 without any deadly or noxious effects : So that I am 

 of opinion, that tree which Sestius calls smilax^ and 

 our historian thinks to be our yew, was some other 

 wood ; and yet I acknowledge that it is esteem'd 

 noxious to cattle when 'tis in the seeds, or newly 

 sprouting ; though I marvel there appear no more 

 such effects of it, both horses and other cattle being 

 free to brouse on it, where it naturally grows : But 

 what is very odd (if true) is that which the late 

 Mr. Aubrey recounts (in his Miscellanies) of a gentle- 

 woman that had long been ill, without any benefit 

 from the physician ; who dream'd, that a friend of 



1 Quam multa arboribus tribuuntur crimina falsa ? 



