272 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK III. by Pliny, lib. xvi. cap. v. and Cujas, upon the place, interprets glan- 

 ^•'^''''y^ dem to signify, not the acorns of the Oak alone, but all sorts of fruit 



whatsoever, as by usage of the Greeks, axpo^pua imports the fruit of all 



kinds of forest-trees. 



There were also laws concerning boundaries, to be found at large in 

 other learned authors De Re Agraria, of which we give this short ex- 

 tract : some admitted any sort of trees, others used peculiar kinds for 

 the fencing of their grounds ; others fenced with foreign trees, that the 

 difference of the wood might serve as a mark : some, by agreement, 

 planted them in common upon the very borders ; some, at their private 

 charge, a little within the margents of their own fields, &c. Amongst 

 the different sorts of trees, we find Pines and Cypress-trees placed for 

 bounds, also Ash, Elm, and Poplar ; which when near the limits, with 

 any cultivated ground between, the intermediate spaces were filled with 

 shrubs. In case the trees were in common, some preserved them un- 

 touched on both sides ; others, the stems only, the lop, the tops, and 

 branches (especially if they belonged to a particular person) to cut or spare 

 at their pleasure, provided they planted others in their room. In trees 

 marked, it was considered whether they were in common, in which case 

 they were marked in the middle, or on each side ; and if one side of the 

 tree had leaves, the other was cut, to signify their belonging to those 

 persons, on the border of whose grounds they were left entire : this for 

 trees of eight feet asunder. Those at twenty feet distance, were marked 

 with X or T, to notify a flexure or turning thereabout. Some permitted 

 them to stand till they arrived to such a bulk and stature as to over-top 

 the rest, distinguished also from those marked on both sides, whether they 

 stood in woods, barren or uncultivated land, as being supposed in com- 

 mon : the same rule held if marked in the middle. If but one side was 

 marked, the unmarked side was the boundary : if the mark was different 

 on either side, (and none else to be seen,) such trees were not to be ac- 

 counted boundaries. Lastly, in champaign and open places, foreign trees 

 were usually planted. If, as sometimes, briers and such shrubs grow on 

 the ancient limits, it should be considered of what kind they are, and in- 

 quired how it happens that they are often found in the middle of the 

 fields. There are more of those nice rules to be found among the lawyers, 

 whilst, before any of these instances, the images of satyrs bounded the 



