A Difcmrfe of Foreft-Trees, 57 



dlepoot for the firft two years, and fo till the third or fourth : 

 When you Tratjj^lant^ place them at eight, ten or twelve foot In- 

 terval : They will likewife grow oiLayen, and Q\Qnoi cuttings f 

 In three years they will come to an incredible altitude 5 in tivelve, 

 be as big as your middle •■, and in eighteen^ or tvpenty^ arrive to full 

 perfection : A j^ecimen of this advance we have had of an Abele 

 Tree atsion^ which being lopp'd in Febr. 165 1, did by the end 

 o£o3eber 52. produce branches as big.as a mans ncr//?, zndfiveH- 

 teen foot in length : As they thus increafe in bulk.^ their vabte and 

 price advance likewife 5 fo as the Dutch look upon a Plantation of 

 thefe Trees as an ample portion for a Davghter, and none of the 

 leaftefFedsof their good Hufbandry , which truly may very well 

 be allow'd, if that calculation hold, which the Knight has afler- 

 ted, who began his Plantation not long fince about Richmond ; 

 that 30 //. being laid out in thefe Plants, would render at thelcaft 

 ten thoufandponnds in eighteen years : Every Tree affording thirty 

 Plants, and every of them thirty more, after each feven years im- 

 proving tveehe pence in growth, till they arriv'd to their acnte. 



5. The Blacky Poplar grows rarely with us, it is a ftronger, and 

 *«Zfer Tree then the White, the leaves more dark, and not fo am- 

 ple. Divers ftately ones of thefe I remember about the banks of 

 Pom Italy, which River he'mg the old EridanMs Co celebrated by 



the Poets in which the temerarious Phaeton is (aid to have been pte- < 



cipitated, doubtlefs gave argument to that/SFw» of his (ad Sifters 

 Metamorphofis into thefe Trees ^ but for the Amber of their preci- 

 ous tears I could hear of no fuch matter, whiles paffing down 

 that River towards Ferrara I diverted my feif with this ftory of 

 the ingenious Poet. 



6. The beft ufeof the Poplar, and Abele (which are all of them 

 hojpitable Trees, for any thing thrives under their fljades) is for 

 Walks, and Avenues about Grounds which are fituated low, and 

 neer the water, till coming to be very old they are apt to grow 

 knurry, and out of proportion : The Timber is incomparable for 

 all forts of white WooddenVejjels, asTrays, Borvls and other 7»r- 

 ners ware j likewife to make Carts, bccaufe it is exceeding light 5 

 for Vine, and Hop-props, and divers viminiom works. The lop- 

 pings in "January are for the Fire '■, and of the tvpigs (with the 

 leaves on) are made Brooms. The Brya or Catkins attraft the Bees, 

 as do alfo the leaves more tenacious of the Mel-deves then moft 

 other Foreji-trees, the Oak^ excepted. 



Of the Ajpen our Woodmen make Hoops , Fire-wood and 

 Coals, ^c. 



CHAP. 



