264 S Y L V A BOOK iv 



as it were, and thinner rayment. Quid folior urn descri- 

 bam diversities ? what shall we say of the mysteri- 

 ous forms, variety and variegation of the leaves and 

 flowers, contrived with such art, yet without art ; 

 some round, others long, oval, multangular, indented, 

 crisped, rough, smooth and polished, soft and flexible 

 at every tremulous blast, as if it would drop in a 

 moment, and yet so obstinately adhering, as to be able 

 to contest against the fiercest winds, that prostrate 

 mighty structures, resisting hurricanes, the violence 

 whereof whole fleets and countries do often feel ; yet 

 I say, continually making war, and sometimes joining 

 forces with steeming showers, against the poor leaf, 

 tied on by a slender stalk ! there it abides till God 

 bids it fall: For so the wise Disposer of things has 

 plac'd it, not only for ornament, but use and protection 

 both of body and fruit, from the excessive heat of 

 summer, and colds even of the sharpest winters, and 

 their immediate impressions ; as we find it in all such 

 places and trees, as like the blessed and good man, 

 have always fruit upon them, ripe, or preparing to 

 mature ; such as the pine, fir, arbutus, orange, and most 

 of those which the Indies and more southern tracts 

 plentifully abound in, where nature provides this 

 continual shelter, and cloaths them with perennial 

 garments. 



But with what amazement do we consider what 

 may be demonstrated of the innumerable (and next to 

 infinite) number of seeds, which in a young elm (for 

 instance) it would amount, during the ordinary age 

 of that species, which suppose to be but one hundred 

 years standing, it has in it 15480000000 seeds, and 

 the tree grow and multiply, as many times, every 

 individual grain contain a second tree, including the 



