CHAP, in S Y L V A 77 



after felling, they universally sprung up beech; and 'tis 

 affirmed, by general experience, that after beech, birch 

 succeeds ; as in that famous wood at Darnway on the 

 river Tindarne, in the province of Moray in Scotland, 

 where nothing had grown but oak in a wood three 

 miles in length, and happily more southerly, it might 

 have been beech, and not birch till the third degrad- 

 ation. Birches familiarly grow out of old and decay'd 

 oaks ; but whence this sympathy and affection should 

 proceed, is more difficult to resolve, in as much as we 

 do not detect any so prolifical and eminent seed in that 

 tree. Some accidents of this nature may be imputed 

 to the winds, and the birds who frequently have been 

 known to waft, and convey seeds to places widely 

 distant, as we have touch'd in the chapter of firs, &c. 

 sect. 4. Holly has been seen to grow out of ash, as 

 ash out of several trees, especially haw-thorn ; nay, in 

 an old rotten ash-stump, in a place where no ashes at 

 all grew by many miles in the whole county : And I 

 have had it confidently asserted by persons of undoubt- 

 ed truth, that they have seen a tree cut in the middle, 

 whose heart was ash-wood, and the exterior part oak, 

 and this in Northamptonshire : And why not as well 

 (though with something more difficulty) as through a 

 willow, whose body (as is noted) it has been observed 

 to penetrate even to the earth ? detruding the willow 

 quite out of its place, of which a pretty emblem might 

 be conceiv'd : But I pursue these instances no farther, 

 concluding this chapter with the Norway engine, or 

 saw-mill, to be either moved with the force of water, 

 or wind, & c. for the more expedite cutting, and con- 

 verting of timber ; to which we will add another, for 

 the more facile perforation and boring of elms, and 

 other timber to make pipes and aquaeducts, and the 



