98 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. bark, for that is ever an indication of youth, as well as the paucity 

 ^^■^^'^^^ of their circles, which, in disbranching and cutting the head off at five 

 or six feet in height (a thing, by the way, which the French usually spare 

 when they transplant this tree) may, before you stir their roots, serve for 

 the more certain guide ; and then plant them immediately, with as much 

 earth as will adhere to them, in the place destined for their station, 

 so*nI'"^'on o"ly t^i^ t^P-i'oot *, (wliich is that downright and stubby part 



good expe- of the roots which all trees raised of seeds do universally produce,) and 



riciicc will •/ i / 



not allow in quickening some of the rest with a sharp knife (but sparing the fibrous, 



young oliivsf >vhich are the main suckers and mouths of all trees) spread them in the 



taking"the'm ^^^^ which hath been prepared to receive them : 1 say in the foss, 



up without unless you will rather trench the whole field, which is incomparably the 



any abate- , x. j 



ment, or the best Way, and infinitely to be preferred before narrow pits and holes, 

 does exceed- aS the manner is, in case you plant any number considerable, the earth 

 thi'gm JtTof being hereby made loose, and easier penetrable for the roots, about 

 bove such as "^^^i^^h you are to cast that mould which, in opening of the trench, you 

 are^deprived took from the surface, and purposely laid apart, because it is sweet, 

 mellow, and better impregnated. But, in this work, be circumspect 

 never to inter your stem deeper than you found it standing, for profound 

 burying very frequently destroys a tree, though an error seldom observed. 

 If^ therefore, the roots be sufficiently covered to keep the body steady 

 and erect, it is enough ; and the not minding of this trifling circumstance 

 does very much deceive our ordinary wood-men, as well as gardeners, 

 for most roots Covet the air, though those of the Quercus Urbana least 

 of any ; for, like the Esculus^ 



Quae quantum vertice ad auras 



^theras, tantum radice in Tartara tendit. georg. ii. 



High as his topmost boughs to heaven ascend. 

 So low his roots to hell's dominion tend. 



And the perfection of that does almost as much concern the prosperity 

 of a tree, as of d man himself, since Homo is but Arhor inversa ; which 

 prompts me to this curious but important advertisement, that the position 

 he likewise sedulously observed. 



7. For the southern parts of all trees being more dilated, and the pores 

 exposed (as evidently appears in their horizontal sections) by the constant 



