OF FOREST-TREES. 237 



Lastly. I would also add something concerning what woods are ob- CHAP. IV. 

 served to be most sonorous for musical instruments : we as yet detect ^'-''"Y"^*'^ 

 few but the German Aer, which is a species of Maple, for the rims of 

 viols, and the choicest and finest grained Fir for the bellies : the fin- 

 ger-boards, back, and ribs, I have seen of Yew, Pear-tree, &cc. but pipes, 

 recorders, and wind-instruments, are made both of hard and soft woods. 

 I had lately an organ with a set of oaken pipes, which were the most 

 sweet and mellow that were ever heard ; it was a very old instrument, 

 and formerly, I think, belonged to the. Duke of Norfolk. 



For the place of growth, that timber is esteemed best which grows 

 most in the sun, and on a dry and hale ground ; for those trees which 

 suck, and drink little, are most hard, robust, and longer lived ; instances 

 of sobriety. The climate contributes much to its quality, and the 

 northern situation is preferred to the rest of the quarters ; so as that 

 which grew in Tuscany was, of old, thought better than that of the 

 Venetian side ; and yet the Biscay timber is esteemed better than what 

 they have from colder countries ; and trees of the wilder kind, and barren, 

 than the over-much cultivated and great bearers. But of this already. 



To omit nothing, authors have summed up the natures of timber, as 

 the hardest, Ebony, Box, Larch, Lotus, Terebinth, Cornus, Yew, &c. and 

 though these indurated woods be too ponderous for ship-carpentry, yet 

 there have been vessels built of them by the Portuguese in America : in 

 which the planks and innermost timbers had been sawed very thin for 

 lightness sake, and the knee-timber put together of divers small pieces, 

 by reason of the inflexibleness of it, both which could not but render 

 the ships very weak : in the meantime, the perfection of these hard 

 materials consists much in their receiving the most exquisite politure ; 

 and for this, linseed, or the sweeter nut-oil, does the effect best : Pliny 

 gives us the receipt, with a decoction of Walnut-shells, and certain 

 Wild Pears. Next to these. Oak for ships and houses, (or more minutely,) 

 the Oak for the keel, the Robur for the prow. Walnut the stern. Elm 

 the pump. Then for bucklers and targets were commended the more 

 soft and moist, because apt to close, swell, and make up their wounds 

 again ; such as Willow, Lime, Birch, Alder, Elder, Ash, Poplar, &cc. 

 Volume II. H h 



