CHAP, in S Y L V A 29 



of the cathedral at Ravena is made of such vine-tree 

 planks ; some of which are 12 foot long, 14 and 15 

 inches broad ; the whole soil of that country produc- 

 ing vines of prodigious growth ; and such another in 

 Margiana is spoken of by Strabo, that was twelve 

 foot in circumference : Pliny mentions one of six 

 hundred years old in his time ; and at Ecoan the late 

 Duke of Montmorancy's house, is a table of a very 

 large dimension, made of the like plant : And that 

 which renders it the more strange, is, that a tree 

 growing in such a wreath'd and twisted manner, rather 

 like a rope than timber, and needing the support of 

 others, should arrive to such a bulk, and firm consis- 

 tence ; but so it is, and Olearius affirms, that he 

 found many vines near the Caspian Sea, whose trunks 

 were as big about as a man. And the old Lotus 

 trees, recorded by Valerius Maximus, and the Quercus 

 Mariana^ celebrated by the prince of orators : Pliny's 

 huge larix^ and what grew in the Fortunate Islands, 

 with that enormous tree Scaliger reports was growing 

 in the Troglodytic India, &c. were famous for their 

 age : St. Hierom affirms he saw the sycomor that 

 Zaccheus climb'd up, to behold our Lord ride in 

 triumph to Jerusalem : But that's nothing for age to 

 the olive, under which our Blessed Saviour agoniz'd, 

 still remaining (as they say) in the garden to which 

 he us'd to resort. At the same rate, Surius tells of 

 other olive-trees at Nazareth, and of the cursed fig- 

 tree, whose stump was remaining above 1500 years. 

 Not to omit that other fig-tree, (yet standing near 

 Cairo) which is said to have open'd in two parts, to 

 receive and protect the Blessed Virgin and Holy Babe, 

 as she was flying into Egypt ; but is now shew'd 

 whole again, as Monconys, who saw (but believ'd 



