36 



TO THE READER. 



Voiuptatcs « condiendi cibos, et luxuriosius ferciila struendi, capitumque et capillo- 



agricolarum ^ ^ _ -j- 



niihiadsapi- « ^um concinnatores, non solum esse audivi, sed et ipse vidi ; Agricola- 



cntis vitam _ ^ . 



proxime vi. « tionisneque Doctores, qui se profiterentur, neque Discipulos coffiiovi." 



dentur acce- ^ ^ • iiii 



dere. cic. de But tliis I leave for our peruked gallants to interpret, and should now 

 apply myself to the directive part, which I am all this^ while bespeaking, 

 if, after what I have said in the several paragraphs of the ensuing Dis- 

 course upon the argument of wood, (and which in this edition, coming 

 abroad with innumerable improvements and advantages, so furnished as I 

 hope shall neither reproach the author or repent the reader,) it might not 

 seem superfluous to have premised any thing here for the encouragement 

 of so becoming an industry. There are divers learned and judicious men 

 who have preceded me in this argument ; as many, at least, as have 

 undertaken to write and compile vast herbals and theatres of plants ; of 

 which we may have some of our own countrymen, (especially the most 

 industrious and learned Mr. Ray,) who have boldly, I dare affirm it, sur- 

 passed any, if not all the foreigners that are extant. In those it is you 

 meet with the description of the several plants, by discourses, figures, 

 names, places of growth, time of flourishing, and their medicinal virtues, 

 which may supply any deficiency of mine as to those particulars ; if, for- 

 bearing the repetition, it should by any be imputed for a defect, though 

 it were indeed none of my design. I say these things are long since per- 

 formed to our hands ; but there is none of these (that I at least know of, 

 and are come to my perusal) who have taken any considerable pains how 

 to direct and encourage us in the culture of Forest-trees, the grand defect 

 of this nation, besides some small sprinklings to be met with in Gervas 

 INIarkham, Old Tusser ; and, of foreigners, the Country-farm, long since 

 translated out of French, and by no means suitable to our clime and 

 country. Neither have any of these proceeded after my method, and so 

 particularly in raising, planting, dressing, governing, &c. or so sedulously 

 made it their business to specify the mechanical uses of the several kinds, 

 as I have done, which was hitherto a great desideratum, and in which 

 the reader will likewise find some things altogether new and instructive ; 

 together with directions and encouragements for the propagation of some 

 foreign curiosities of ornament and use, which were hitherto neglected. 

 If I have upon occasion presumed to say any thing concerning their 

 medicinal properties, it has been modestly and frugally, and with chief, 

 if not only, respect to the poor woodman, whom none, I presume, will 



