76 



A True and Exa& Hijlory 



the green ftem, the other in order to make a well fhapd Top, to fb 

 beautiful a ftem. The branches fprout forth from the middle, or in- 

 trinfick part of the tree, one at once ^ and that wrapt up fb clofe as 'tis 

 rather like a Pike than a branch Vv'ith leaves , and that Pike alwayes 

 bends towards theEaft 3 but being opened by the Suns heat fpreads 

 the leaves abroad , at which time the outmoft or eldeft branch of 

 fprig below withers and hangs down, and pulls with it the film that 

 bears it, andfo both it and the film which holds it upturn of aruffet 

 colour and hang down like a dead leaf, till the wind blows them off 5 

 by which time the Pike above is become a branch, with all its leaves 

 opened , then comes forth another Pike, and then the next outmoft 

 branch and film below, falls away as the former, and lb the tree grows 

 fo much higher, as that branch took room, and fb a pike and a dead 

 leaf , a pike and a dead leaf^ till (he be advanc'd to her full height, 

 which will not be till 100 years be accomplifhed : about thirty or 

 forty years old, fhewill bear fruit, but long before that time , chan- 

 ges her (hape , her belly being lefTened partly by the multiplicity of 

 roots, fhe fhoots down into the earth (nature forefteing how great a 

 weight they were to bear, and how great aftrefs they were to fufFer, 

 when the winds take hold of (b large a head , as they were to be 

 crown d with) and partly by thrufting out fiiftenance and fubftance, 

 to raife and advance the ftem or body (for out of this belly v/hich is 

 the ftore-houfe of all this good itcomesj fo that now (he becomes ta- 

 per, with no m.ore lefTening than a well fiiap'd arrow, and full out as 

 ftrait, her body then being of a bright Afh colour, with fbme dapples 

 of green, the films a top retaining their finoothnefs and greennels,only 

 ahttle variation inthefhape,and that is a little fwelling near the place 

 that touches the ftem or body, not much unhke an Urinal, fo that the 

 I fwelling that was in the body, is now raifed up to the films or skins 

 j above. But at this age , the branches ftand not fo upright, as when 

 ! the tree was in her minority , but has as great beauty in the ftooping 

 I and declenfion, as flie had in the rifing of her branches, when her 

 youth thrufts them forth with greater violence and vigour , and yet 

 they had then (bme little ftooping near the points. And now there is 

 an addition to her beauty by two green ftudds, or (upporters, that rife 

 out of her fides, near the place where the films joy n to the tree, and 

 they are about three foot long, fmall at the place from whence they 

 grow, but bigger upwards, purely green, and not unlike the Iron that 

 Glafiers ufe to melt their Sawder with. 



One grows on one fide of the tree, the other on the other fide, and 

 between thefe two of the fame height, on either fide the tree , a bufh 

 upon which the fruit grows, which are of thebignefs of large French 

 * grapes, fbme green, fbme yellow, fbme purple, and when they come to 

 be purple, they are ripejand in a while fall down, and then the yellow 

 becomes purple, and the green yellow 5 and fb take their turns, till j 

 the tree gives over bearing. Thefe fruits we can hardly come by 

 being of fo great a height, nor is it any great matter : for the tafte is 

 not pleafant, but the HOgs find them very agreeable to their palats 

 for thofe that eat of them grow fuddenly fat. I have feen an Negro 

 with two fliort ropes clime the tree , and gather the fruit , about this 



time. 



