3 1 8 S Y L V A BOOK ii 



wards, the other half; this, in more places, as the bulk 

 of the stem requires; and if crooked, cut deep, and 

 frequent in the ham; and if the gaping be much filling 

 the rift with a little cow-dung; do this on each side, 

 and at Spring, February or March : Also cutting off 

 some branches is profitable ; especially such as are 

 blasted, or lightning-struck : If (as sometimes also) it 

 proceed from the baking of the earth about the stem, 

 lighten, and stir it. 



6. The teredo^ cossi, and other worms, lying between 

 the body and the bark, (which it separates) poyson that 

 passage to the great prejudice of some trees; but the 

 holes being once found, they are to be taken out with 

 a light incision, the wound covered with loam; or let 

 the dry-part of the wood (bark and all) be cut: applying 

 only a wash of piss and vinegar twice or thrice a week 

 during a month : The best means to find out their 

 quarters, is to follow the wood-pecker, and other birds, 

 often pitching upon the stem (as you may observe them) 

 and knocking with their bills, give notice that the tree 

 is infected, at least, between the bark. But there are 

 divers kinds of these %v\6<j>ayoi of which the re/oijSwv or 

 tarmes we have mentioned, will sometimes make such 

 a noise in a tree, as to awaken a sleeping man : The 

 more rugous are the cossi, of old had in deficits amongst 

 the epicures, who us'd to fatten them in flower; and 

 this, (as Tertullian, and S. Hierom tells us) was the 

 chief food of the hierophantae Cereris\ as they are at 

 this day a great regalo in Japan : In the mean time, 

 experience has taught us, that millipedes wood-lice 

 (to be plentifully found under old timber-logs, being 

 dry'd and reduc'd to powder, and taken in drink) are 

 an admirable specific against the jaundies, scorbut, &c. 

 to purifie the blood, and clarifie the sight. 



