266 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK III. Suckers that sprout from the farthest part of the stem, or body of 

 '^^'^^^"^ the mother-tree, are best, as easier plucked up without detriment to 

 the roots and fibres, or violence to the mother : it were good, therefore, 

 first to uncover the roots whence they spring, and to cut them close 

 off, re-planting them immediately ; those which grow at more distance 

 may be separated with some of the old root, if you find the sucker not 

 well furnished. 



To produce suckers, lay the roots bare, and slit some of them here 

 and there discreetly, and then cover them. 



Layers are to be bent down and couched in rich mould ; and if you 

 find them stubborn, you may slit a little in the bark and wood, but no 

 deeper than to make it ply, without wounding the tender heart. Putting 

 forth root is assisted by pricking the bark, slitting, or binding a pack- 

 thread about the part you would have the root spring from. 



, The proper season is the early spring and mid-autumn ; and in all dry 

 seasons observe to keep the layers diligently watered. 



Slips and cuttings (by which most trees may be propagated) should be 

 separated at the burs, joints, or knobs : strip them of their leaves before 



" stitious woman, he represents her as breaking the ice of the Tyber, that she might per- 

 " form her ablutions : 



Hybernum fracta glacie descendet in amnem, 

 Ter matutino Tyberi mergetur. > 



" The poet speaks of the freezing of the river as a common event. Many passages in 

 " Horace suppose the streets of Rome full of snow and ice. We should have had more 

 " certainty with regard to this point, had the ancient Romans known the use of ther- 

 " mometers. But their writers, without intending it, give us information sufficient to con- 

 " vince us, that the winters are now more temperate there than formerly. At present, the 

 " Tyber no more freezes at Rome than the Nile at Cairo. The citizens of Rome esteem 

 " the winter very rigorous if the snow lies two days, and if one sees for eight and forty hours 

 " a few icicles hanging from a fountain that has a north exposition." Pliny, the consul, 

 in his letter to ApoUinaris, in which he describes his villa in Tuscany, says, that it produces 

 Bay-trees in great perfection, but that sometimes, though not oftener than in the neighbour- 

 hood of Rome, they are killed by the sharpness of the seasons. Ovid describes the place 

 of his banishment, Tomus, on the Euxine sea, as enjoying a most rigorous winter; but 

 Tournefort, who visited the same country, Says, that there is not a finer climate in the world. 

 He remarks, that nothing but Ovid's melancholy could have induced him to paint the coun- 

 try in such horrid colours. But I think the facts mentioned by the poet are too circum- 

 stantial to admit of such an interpretation. 



