202 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK III. in Northamptonshire, the magnificent seat of the Right Hon. the Earl of 

 ■"^"'v^^y Sunderland. I find a Jewish tradition, cited by the learned Bochart, that 

 Noali planted the trees (he supposes Cedars) of which he afterwards built 

 the ark that preserved him : nor was it esteemed any diminution for 

 princes themselves to plant trees with that hand which held the sceptre 

 and reins of empire : so as in the Voorhout of the Hague, stands a tree 

 placed there by the hands of the emperor Charles, which is yet in its 

 prime growth, and no small boast of the good people. 



But before we go farther with the history of the stature and magnitude 

 of trees, we are not to conclude as if all those trees and plants, which 

 arrive to that enormous stature and bulk we have mentioned, were not 

 to be found in other countries, both of the same and other species ; but 

 that even those exotics, and divers of our own, which seem pigmies and 

 dwarfs, compared to those giants in their native climate, are so much 

 greater than in ours ; since we find that we account but shrubs, are 

 divers of them well-grown trees, and prosper into useful timber ; such as 

 Juniper, (emulating the tall Cedar,) Sabine, Tamarisk, Cornel, Phillyrea, 

 Granade, Lentiscus, Thuya, Laurel, Bays, and even Rosemary, (and 

 other fruitexes and ligneous plants,) superior in growth and stature (than 

 with us) where they spontaneously emerge. Thus not only the White 

 INIulberry wonderfully outstrips ours, but those of much smaller stature. 

 The Arbutus, growing on Mount Athos, becomes a spreading tree. The 

 Cypress in Candy comes to timber, fit for vast beams and planks of four 

 feet breadth. The Larch over-tops the Fir. Even the JNIyrtle, with 

 us but a bush, makes staves for spears. The Oleander, et humilis 

 Genista, nay, the Rhododendron, make posts and rafters. Even 

 herbaceous Suffrutages, and amongst the culinary furniture, a grain of 

 ISIustard has sprung up to a tree, whose branches afforded harbour to the 

 , birds of the air ; and the very Hyssop made the stalk that carried a 

 sponge to the mouth of our blessed Lord on the cross, p We are told by 



P Some critics upon this passage of St. John taking the H)'ssop of Judtsa to be the 

 same plant, and of the same growth with ours, have conceived, either that the Hyssop was 

 not used as the means of hfting up the sponge, or, that the word Hyssop is not the true 

 reading of the text. These two opinions have given rise to many ingenious observations 



» John xix. 29, 



