236 A DISCOURSE 



BOOK III. ISly Lord Bacon, exper. 658, recommends for trial of a sound or 

 '■''"^'^^^ knotty piece of timber, to cause one to speak at one of the extremes to 



his companion hstening to the other ; for if it be knotty, the sound, says 



he, will come abrupt. 



Moreover, it is expedient that you know which are the veins and which 

 the grain in timber, because of the difficulty of working against it: those, 

 therefore, are counted the veins which grow largest, and are softer, for the 

 benefit of cleaving and hewing ; that the grain, or pectines, which runs in 

 waves, and makes the diverse and beautiful chamfers which some woods 

 abound in to admiration. The Fir-tree, horizontally cut, has two circles 

 of different fibres, which (when the timber comes to be cleft in the middle) 

 separate into four different waves, whence PUny calls them quadrijluvios : 

 and it is to be noted, that the nodus, and knotty part of these sort of 

 trees, is that only which grows from the first boughs to the summit, or 

 top, by Vitruvius termed the Fusterna, which both Baldus and Salmasius 

 derive a Fuste. The other clean part, free of these boils, (being that 

 which, when the sappy slab is cut away, is the best,) he calls Sapinea. 

 Finally ; the grain of Beech runs two contrary ways, and is, therefore, 

 to be wrought accordingly ; and indeed the grain of all timber ought 

 well to be observed, since the more you work according to it, especially 

 in cleaving, and the less you saw, the stronger wiU be your work. 



Here it may be fitly inquired, whether of all the sorts we have enume- 

 rated, the old or the younger trees do yield the fairest colour, pleasantest 

 grain, and gloss for wainscots, cabinets, boxes, gun-stocks, &:c. and what 

 kind of Pear or Plum-tree gives the deepest red, and approaches nearest 

 in beauty to Brazil. It is affirmed the old Oak, old Walnut, and young 

 Ash are best for most uses, and yet for ship-carpentry this does not always 

 hold ; nor does the bigness of it so much recommend it, because it is 

 commonly a sign of age, which (like to very old men) is often brittle and 

 effete. Black and thorny Plum-tree is of the deepest oriency ; but whe- 

 ther these belong to the forest, I am not yet satisfied, and therefore have 

 assigned them no chapter apart. But now I speak of the Plum-tree, I 

 am assured by a worthy friend, that the gum thereof, dissolved in vine- 

 gar, has cured the most contumacious tetters, when all other remedies, 

 outward or inwardly applied, nothing availed. 



