CHAP, iv S Y L V A idi 



4 stony particles from that permeating water : Which 

 4 stony particles having, by means of the fluid vehicle, 

 4 convey'd themselves not only into the microscop- 

 4 ical pores, and perfectly stopp'd up them, but also 

 4 into the pores, which may perhaps be even in that 

 4 part of the wood which through the microscope 

 4 appears most solid ; do thereby so augment the 

 4 weight of the wood, as to make it above three times 

 4 heavier than water, and perhaps six times as heavy 

 4 as it was when wood : Next, they hereby so lock 

 4 up and fetter the parts of the wood, that the fire 

 4 cannot easily make them fly away, but the action of 

 4 the fire upon them is only able to char those parts as 

 4 it were, like as a piece of wood if it be closed very 

 4 fast up in clay, and kept a good while red-hot in 

 4 the fire, will by the heat of the fire be char'd, and 

 4 not consum'd ; which may perhaps be the reason 

 4 why the petrify'd substance appear'd of a blackish 

 4 brown colour after it had been burnt. By this in- 

 4 trusion of the petrify'd particles it also becomes hard, 

 4 and friable ; for the smaller pores of the wood 

 4 being perfectly stuffed up with these stony particles, 

 c the particles of the wood have few or no pores in 

 4 which they can reside, and consequently, no flexion 

 4 or yielding can be caus'd in such a substance. The 

 4 remaining particles likewise of the wood among the 

 4 stony particles may keep them from cracking and 

 4 flying, as they do in a flint. 



The casual finding of subterraneous trees has been 

 the occasion of this curious digression, besides what 

 we have already said in cap. in. book n. Now it 

 were a strange paradox to affirm, that the timber 

 under the ground, should to a great degree, equal the 

 value of that which grows above the ground ; seeing 



