OF FOREST-TREES. 



317 



provincia minor ; but for the most part annexed and joined to some of the CHAP. VI i. 

 greatest consuls themselves ; that facetious sarcasm of the comedian ^"^"V*^.^ 

 (where Plautus names it provincia caudicaria ) referring only to some un- 

 der officers, subservient to the other. And such a charge is at this day ex- 

 tant amongst the noble Venetians, who have near Trivisi, (besides what 

 they nourish in other places,) a goodly forest of Oaks, preserved as a jewel, 

 for the only use of the arsenal, called the montello ; and this is carefully 

 supervised by a certain officer whom they name il capifano. The like 

 have the Genoeses for the care of the goodly forests of Attoncs, in the 

 island of Corsica, full of goodly Oaks and other timber ; which not only 

 furnish that state with sufficient materials to buUd their own galleys and 

 other vessels, but so many for sale to other nations, that since the late 

 insult the French monarch made upon their glorious city, he has haugh- 

 tily forbid them to traffic any more with strangers, by supplying them as 

 heretofore, to their great detriment and loss : this timber is of such grain 

 and quality, as, though felled in the new moon, it is not at all impaired. 



We might, besides all these, instance many other prudent states ; not 

 to importune you with the express laws which Ancus Martins, the ne- 

 phew of Numa, and other princes long before Caesar, did ordain for this 

 very purpose ; since, indeed, the care of so public and honourable an en- 

 terprise as is this of planting and improving of woods, is a right noble 

 and royal undertaking ; as that of the forest of Dean in particular, 

 were it bravely managed, an imperial design ; and I do pronounce it 

 more worthy of a prince, who truly consults his glory in the highest in- 

 terest of his subjects, than that of gaining battles, or subduing a pro- 

 vince. 



And now after all this, and the directions and encouragements enume- 

 rated in this chapter, together with the most important concerns of these 

 dominions, I list not to declare hj whose negligence so little effects appear 

 of these improvements, which might by this time have been made in the 

 Royal Magazine, ever since the first edition of this treatise"; though the 

 cheers then intrusted, and whose duty it was, be now no more. I cannot. 



1 This takes in a period of forty years, viz. from the first appearance of the Silva in 1664, 

 to the publication of the fourth edition in 1704. 

 Volume 1I> S S 



