22 S Y L V A BOOK III 



stopt ; trespassing cattle impounded ; and (where they 

 are infested) the deer chased out, &c. It is most 

 certain, that trees preserved and govern'd by this 

 discipline, and according to the rules mention'd, 

 would increase the beauty of forests, and value of 

 timber, more in ten or twelve years, than all other 

 imaginable plantations (accompanied with our usual 

 neglect) can do in forty or fifty. 



i o. To conclude, in the time of this work should 

 our ingenious arborator frequently incorporate, mingle, 

 and unite the arms and branches of some young and 

 flexible trees which grow in consort, and near to one 

 another ; by entring them into their mutual barks 

 with a convenient incision : This, especially, about 

 fields and hedge-rows, for fence and ornament. Dr. 

 Plot mentions some that do naturally, or rather indeed 

 accidentally mingle thus ; nay, and so imbrace and 

 coalesce, as if they issu'd out of the bowels of one 

 another : Such are the two beeches in the way from 

 Oxford to Reading at Cain-End ; the bodies of which 

 trees springing from different roots, after they have 

 ascended parallel to the top, strangely unite together 

 a great height from the ground, a transverse piece of 

 timber entring at each end the bodies of the trees, 

 and growing jointly with them : The same is seen in 

 sycomores at New-Colledge gardens : I my self have 

 woven young ash-poles into twists of three and four 

 braids, like womens hair, when they make it up to 

 fillet it under their coifes, which have strangely 

 incorporated and grown together without separation ; 

 but these are rather for curiosity, than of advantage 

 for timber. 



Trees will likewise grow frequently out of the 

 boal of the other, and some roots will penetrate 



