33 SYLVA BOOK ii 



Theophrastus relates, 1. 5. c. 19. of that huge platanus, 

 which rose in one night in his observation ; which 

 puts me in mind of what I remember the very learned 

 critic Palmerius affirms of an oak, subverted by a late 

 tempest near Breda, (where this old soldier militated 

 under Prince Maurice, at the town when besieg'd by 

 the famous Marq. Spinola) which tree, after it had 

 lain prostrate about 2 months, (the side-branches par'd 

 off) rose up of it self, and flourish 'd as well as ever. 

 Which event was thought so extraordinary, that the 

 people reserved sprigs and boughs of it, as sacred 

 reliques ; and this he affirms to have seen himself. I 

 take the more notice of these accidents, that none who 

 have trees blown down, where it may cause a deform'd 

 gap in some avenue near their seats, may not altogether 

 despair of their resurrection, with patience and timely 

 freeing them. And the like to this I find happen'd 

 in more than one tree near Bononia in Italy, anno 1657. 

 when of late a turbulent gust had almost quite eradi- 

 cated a very large tract of huge poplars, belonging to 

 the Marchioness Elephantucca Spada, that universally 

 erected themselves again, after they were beheaded, as 

 they lay even prostrate. l What says the naturalist ? 

 Prostratas restitui plerumque, & quadam terrae cicatrice 

 re^ftiiscere^ ^oulgare est : 'Tis familiar (says Pliny) in 

 the platanus^ which are very obnoxious to the winds, 

 by reason of the thickness of their branches, which 

 being cut off and discharged, restore themselves. 

 This also frequently happens in wall-nuts, olive-trees, 

 and several others, as he affirms, 1. 16. c. 31. But 

 we have farther instances than these, and so very lately 

 as that dreadful storm happening 26 Nov. 1703, 

 when after so many thousand oaks, and other timber- 



1 See cap. 4. lib. 2. of a cypress. 



