CHAP, ii S Y L V A 9 



forbear to abdicate our country planter's goddess ; 

 contenting my self with the wholsomeness of the air 

 we breathe in, and the goodness of the soil : I shall 

 therefore in the first place speak of the manual oper- 

 ation of pruning, and other instructions as they after- 

 wards occur : 



1. Putatio ; pruning I call all purgation of trees in 

 general, from what is superfluous : The Ancients 

 found such benefit in pruning, that they feigned a 

 Goddess presided over it, as Arnobius tells us : And 

 in truth, it is in the discreet performance of this work, 

 that the improvement of our timber and woods does 

 as much consist as in any thing whatsoever. A skil- 

 ful planter should therefore be early at this work : 

 Shall old Gratius give you reason and direction ? 

 And his interpreter thus in English ? 



1 Twigs of themselves never rise straight and high, 

 And under-woods are bow'd as first they shoot. 

 Then prune the boughs ; and suckers from the root 

 Discharge. The leavy wood fond pity tires. 

 After, when with tall rods the tree aspires, 

 And the round staves to heaven advance their twigs, 

 Pluck all the buds, and strip off all the sprigs ; 

 These issues vent what moisture still abound, 

 And the veins unemploy'd grow hard and sound. 



Wase. 



2. For 'tis a misery to see how our fairest trees are 

 defac'd, and mangled by unskilful wood-men, and 



1 Nunquam sponte sua procerus ad aera termes 

 Exiit, inque ipsa curvantur stirpe genestae. 

 Ergo age luxuriam primo foetusque nocentes 

 Detrahe. Frondosas gravat indulgentia silvas. 

 Post ubi proceris generosa stirpibus arbor 

 Se dederit, teretesque ferent ad sidera virgae, 

 Stringe notas circum, & gemmantes exige versus. 

 His, si quis vitiurn nociturus sufficit humor, 

 Visceribus fluit, & venas durabit inertes. 



Gra. Fal. Cynegel 



BB 



