3O2 S Y L V A BOOK ii 



9. Is there under heaven a more glorious and 

 refreshing object of the kind, than an impregnable 

 hedge of about four hundred foot in length, nine 

 foot high, and five in diameter ; which I can shew 

 in my now ruin'd gardens at Say's-Court, (thanks to 

 the Czar of Moscovy) at any time of the year, glit- 

 t'ring with its arm'd and varnish'd leaves ? The taller 

 standards at orderly distances, blushing with their 

 natural coral : It mocks at the rudest assaults of the 

 weather, beasts, or hedge-breakers, 



Et ilium nemo impune lacessit. 



It is with us of two eminent kinds, the prickly, and 

 smoother leav'd ; or as some term it, the free-holly, 

 not unwelcome when tender, to sheep and other 

 cattle : There is also of the white-berried, and a 

 golden and silver, variegated in six or seven differ- 

 ences ; which proceeds from no difference in the spe- 

 cies, but accidentally, and naturae lusu^ as most such 

 variegations do ; since we are taught how to effect it 

 artificially, namely, by sowing the seeds, and planting 

 in gravelly soil, mixed with store of chalk, and pressing 

 it hard down ; it being certain, that they return to 

 their native colour when sown in richer mould, and 

 that all the fibers of the roots recover their natural food. 

 10. I have already shew'd how it is to be rais'd of 

 the berries, (of which there is a sort bears them 

 yellow, and propagate their colour) when they are 

 ready to drop, this only omitted, that they would first 

 be freed from their tenacious and glutinous mucilage 

 by being wash'd, and a little bruised, then dry'd with 

 a cloath ; or else bury them as you do the yew and 

 hipps ; and let our forester receive this for no common 



