J 



OF FOREST-TREES. 293 



And how if in such fencing-works we did sometimes imitate what Quin- CH a P. vr. 

 tus Curtius, lib. vi. has recorded of the Mardorum Gens, near to the con- "^-^"V"^ 

 fines of Hyrcania, who did, by the close planting of trees alone upon the 

 bordures, give so strange a check to the power of that great conqueror 

 Alexander. They were a barbarous people indeed, but in this worthy our 

 imitation; and the work so handsomely and particularly described, that I 

 shall not grieve to recite it: ArboresdenscB sunt ex industria consitte, quarum 

 teneros adhuc ramosmanu flectunt, qiiosintortosrursus inserunt terrce : inde, 

 velutex alia radice latioresvirenttrunci : hos qua natura fert,adolescerenon 

 sinunt; quippe alium alii quasi nexu conserunt, qui uhi timlia fronde vestiti 

 sunt operiunt terram. Itaque occulti nexus ramorum velut laquei perpetud 

 sepe iter claudunt. " The trees," saith he, " were planted so near and 

 thick together of purpose, that when the boughs were young and flexible, 

 bent and wreathed within one another, their tops were bowed into the 

 earth, ( as we submerge our layers,) whence taking fresh roots, they shot 

 up new stems, which not being permitted to grow as of themselves they 

 would have done, they so knit and perplexed one within another, that 

 when they were clad with leaves, they even covered the ground, and in- 

 closed the whole country with a kind of living net, and impenetrable 

 hedge." And this is not unlike what I am told is frequently practised in 

 several places of Devon ; where the oaks being planted very near the foot 

 of those high mounds, by which they separate their lands, so root them- 

 selves into the bank, that when it fails and crumbles down, the fences con- 

 tinue still maintained by them with exceeding profit. Such works as these 

 would become a Cato or a Varro indeed, one that ere pater j)atr ice, non 

 sibisoli natus, born for posterity; but we are commonly of another mould; 



et fruges consumere nali. 



A fair advance of speedy growth and noble trees, especially for walks 

 and avenues, may be assuredly expected from the graffing of young Oaks 

 and Elms with the best of their kinds ; and where the goodliest of these 

 last are growing, the ground should be ploughed and finely raked in the 

 season when the scales fall, that the showers and dews fastening the seed 

 where the wind drives it, it may take root, and hasten, as it will, to a 

 sudden tree ; especially if seasonable shredding be applied, which has 

 sometimes made them arrive to the height of twelve feet by the first three 

 years ; after which they grow amain. And if such were planted as near to 

 one another as in the examples we have alleged, it is almost incredible 



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