CHAP, vii S Y L V A 321 



diachylon plaister, and also bound as the rest, did 

 within the space of three weeks, unite to the tree, 

 tho' with some shriveling and scar: The same experi- 

 ment try'd about Michaelmas, and in the Winter, 

 came to nothing : Where some branches were decorti- 

 cated quite round, without any union, a withering 

 of the branch beyond the incision, ensu'd : Also a 

 twig separated from a branch, with a sloping cut, 

 and fastn'd to it again in the same posture, bound 

 and cover'd with the former plaister, wither'd in 

 three days time : Among other easie remedies, a 

 cere-cloth of fresh-butter and hony, apply'd whilst 

 the wound is green, (especially in Summer) and bound 

 about with a thrum-rope of moist hay, and rubb'd 

 with cow-dung has healed many : But for rare and 

 more tender trees, after pruning, take purely refined 

 tallow, mingled and well harden'd with a little loamy 

 earth, and horse-dung newly made. 



Dr. Plot speaks of an elm growing near the bowling- 

 green at Magdalen-College, quite round disbark'd 

 almost for a yard near the ground, which yet flourishes 

 exceedingly ; upon which he dilates into an accurate 

 discourse, how it should possibly be ; all trees being 

 held to receive their nutrition between the wood and 

 the bark, and to perish upon their separation ; this 

 tree being likewise hollow as a drum, and its outmost 

 surface (where decorticated) dry, and dead. The 

 solution of this phaenomenon (and to all appearance, 

 from the verdant head) could not have been more 

 philosophically resolv'd, than by the hypothesis there 

 produc'd by the Doctor, who assures me, he was yet 

 deliberating whether the tree being hollow, it might 

 not possibly proceed from some other latent cause, as 

 afterwards he discover'd when having obtain'd per- 



