CHAP, in S YL V A 71 



the boal, so meeting it with the downright strokes, 

 it will be sever'd without splicing. 



29. We have shewed why some, four or five days 

 before felling, bore the tree cross-way, others cut a 

 kerf round the body, almost to the very pith, or heart, 

 and so let it remain a while ; by this means to drain 

 away the moisture, which will distill out of the wound- 

 ed veins, and is chiefly proper for the moister sort of 

 trees : And in this work the very ax will tell you the 

 difference of the sex ; the male being so much harder 

 and browner than the female : But here (and where- 

 ever we speak thus of plants) you are to understand 

 the analogical, not proper distinctions. 



30. But that none may wonder why in many 

 authors of good note, we find the fruit-bearers of 

 some trees call'd males, and not rather females, as 

 particularly the cypress, S?c., this preposterous de- 

 nomination had (I read) its source from very ancient 

 custom, and was first begun in ^Egypt (Diodorus says 

 in Greece) where we are told, that the father only 

 was esteem'd the sole author of generation ; the mother 

 contributing only receptacle, and nutrition to the 

 off-spring, which legitimated their mixtures as well 

 with their slaves as free-women : And upon this 

 account it was, that even trees bearing fruit, were 

 amongst them reputed males, and the sterile and 

 barren ones for females ; and we are not ignorant how 

 learnedly this doctrine has been lately reviv'd by some 

 of our most celebrated physicians : But since the same 

 arguments do not altogether quadrate in trees, where 

 the coition is not so sensible (whatever they pretend 

 of the palms, Gfc. and other amorous intertwining of 

 roots) in my opinion we might with more reason call 

 that the female which bears any eminent fruit, seed 



