232 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



How can we sufficiently admire those 

 sacred writers, who forbid the sacrifices of 

 these detestable groves and abominable idols, 

 but have made them the spots for quiet con- 

 templation and calm reflection ? Lord Thur- 

 low says — 



" The forest is to me the sweetest college 



Of any, that the outward world can show, 

 Lacking professors, yet most rich in knowledge, 

 For vile profession is to virtue foe. 



Wisdom doth here in all its branches grow, 



Preaching in stones, and from the senseless wood, 



Brawls in the brooks, and, wheresoe'er we go, 

 The tongueless lecture still is understood." 



Pliny tells us that neither the fir or pine 

 grew naturally in the vicinity of Rome. This 

 author observes that the best timber of this 

 kind grew on the Alps and Apennines, 

 from which circumstance we presume these 

 mountains derived their names, as the Alps 

 are frequently called Alpine mountains. 



Pliny says likewise that there are excellent 

 firs in France, Corsica, Bithynia, Pontus, and 

 Macedonia ; those which grew in Arcadia, 

 he states, were not so good, but the worst 

 grew on Mount Parnassus. 



It is a remark of Caesar's, in his Commen- 

 taries, that during his stay in Britain, he did 

 not see a fir-tree. At what exact period it 



