A Difcourfe of Foreft-Trecs. 79 



and maturity,which are all of them different as to if/we, and kjfid:, 

 yet do not I intend by this any period or inftant in which they do 

 not continually either Improve or Decay (the etid of one being 

 ftill the hegiftmng of the other') but farther then which their Na- 

 tures do not extend 5 but immediately (though to our lenfes ifftfer^ 

 cepibly') through fome infirmity (to which all things fublunary be 

 obnoxious) dwindle and impair, either through Jge^ defeft of 

 HoHrijhmetit ^ by jicknefs, and decay of principal farts 5 but efpeci- 

 ally, and more inevitably, when violently invaded by mortal and 

 incurable Infirmities^ or by what other extinftion of their native 

 heat^ jkbjtrvUion ^ or obHrn^ion of Air and JUoisiure , which 

 making all motions whatfoever to ceafe and determine, is the caufe 

 of their final deftruftion. 



2. Our honeft C^w^^re^-man, to whofe Experience we have been 

 obliged for fomething I have lately Animadverted concerning the 

 Truning of TreeSjdoes in another Chapter of the fame Treatife fpeak 

 of the Age of Trees. The Difcourfe is both learned, rational, and 

 full of encouragement .• For he does not fcruple to affirm. That 

 even fome Fruit-Trees may poffibly arrive to a thoufand years of 

 Age •■) and if fo Fruit-tree f whoie continual bearing does fo much 

 impair and (horten their lives, as we fee it does their form and 

 beauty 5 How much longer might we reafonably imagine fome 

 hardy and flow-growing Foreji-trees may probably laft ? I remem- 

 ber Pliny tells us of fom.e Oa^f growing in his time in the Hercynian 

 Foreft, which were thought co-evous with the World it felf 5 their 

 roots had even raifed Mountains, and where they encounter 'd 

 fweird into goodly Arches likejthe Gates of a City : But to our 

 more modern Author s calculation for Fruit-trees ( I fuppofe he 

 means Pears.^ Apples^ &c.) his allowance is three hundred years for 

 growth, as much for their jiandQ^s he terms it), and three hundred 

 for their Decay, •whiich does in the total amount to no left then nine 

 hundred years. This conjefture is deduced from Apple-Trees grow- 

 ing in his Orchard,wh.\ch having known for fourty years, and upon 

 diligent enquiry of fundcy aged Perfons of eighty years and more, 

 who remembred them Trees all their time, he finds by comparing 

 their growth with others of that A?W, to be far fhort in bignels 

 and perfediion, (wz,. by more then two parts of thrccj yea al- 

 beit thofe other Trees have been much hindred in their ftature 

 through ill government and ordering. 



9. To eftablifh this he ailemblcs many Arguments from the age 

 of Animals, whole jiate and decay double the time of their in- 

 creafe by the faine proportion : If then Claith he) thofe fiail Crea- 

 tures, tvho/e bodies are noihing (in a manner) but a tender rotten- 

 nefs, may live tp that age, I fee not but a Tree of afilidfubflance, not 

 damnified by heat or Qo\i\,capable oi and fubjeU to any b^nd of order- 

 ing or drejjing^feeding naturally ^and from the beginning dfsburthen'd 

 of all jupcrjiuities, eafed of, and of his oxen accord avoiding the cau- 

 fei that may annoy him, pould double the life of other Creatures by 

 'Very many years. He proceeds, IVhat elfe are Trees in comparijon 

 with the Earth, but as haiis to the body c/Man ? And it is certain, 



that 



