66 SYLVA FLOJUfERA. 



tended to be constantly under water. It also 

 serves for many useful purposes in domestic 

 and rural economy, such as cart-wheels, 

 troughs, handles of tools, &c. ; whilst the 

 good housewife knows its value in spinning- 

 wheels, milk-vessels, bowls, trenchers, &c., 

 and it supports her from the damp earth, in 

 the shape of wooden heels, pattens, and clogs ; 

 nor is she unacquainted with a property in 

 the leaves, with which she strews her chambers 

 before sweeping, for when fresh they are 

 covered with a glutinous liquor, that entangles 

 fleas like birds in bird-lime. The whole tree 

 is very astringent, and well-known to the 

 country dyers The bark is used by them, 

 as well as by the tanner and leather-dresser, 

 and the fisherman is not unacquainted with 

 its utility for tanning his nets. 



Those artisans, whose lives are spent in 

 the Gobelins, to throw a semblance of nature 

 into tapestry, barrow their shades for flesh 

 colours from this tree, with the assistance of 

 a little copperas. The young shoots dye 

 yellow, but if cut in the spring, when full of 

 sap, they dye a cinnamon colour. The fresh 

 wood yields an umber tint; the catkins a 

 tolerable good green ; and the bark is em- 

 ployed as a basis for black, particularly in 



