7 



OF FOREST-TREES. 99 



eccentricity of the hyperbolical circles, (save just under the equator, CHAP. III. 

 where the circles concentre, as we find in those hard woods which grow ^-^V"^^ 

 there,) ours, being now on the sudden, and at such a season, turned 

 to the north, does starve and destroy more trees, how careful soever men 

 have been in ordering the roots, and preparing the ground, than any 

 other accident whatsoever, neglect of staking and defending from cattle 

 excepted ; the importance whereof caused the best of poets, and most 

 experienced in this argument, when giving advice concerning this 

 article, to add, 



Quin etiam coeli regionem in cortice signant : 

 Ut, quo quaeque modo steterit, qua parte calores 

 Austrinos tulerit, quae terga obverterit axi, 



Restituant : adeo in teneris consuescere multura est. georg. ii. 



Beside, to plant it as it 'was, they mark 

 The heav'n's four quarters in the tender bark; 

 And to the north or south restore the side. 

 Which at their birth did heat or cold abide : 

 So strong is custom ; such effects can use 

 In tender souls of pliant plants produce. 



Which monition, though Pliny and some others think good to neglect, 

 or esteem indifferent, I can confirm from frequent losses of my own, and 

 by particular trials, having sometimes transplanted great trees at Mid- 

 summer with success (the earth adhering to the roots) and miscarried 

 in others, where the circumstance of aspect only was omitted. 



To observe therefore the coast and side of the stock, especially 

 of fruit-trees, is not such a trifle as by some pretended ; for if the air 

 be as much the mother and nurse, as water and earth, as more than 

 probable it is, such blossoming plants as court the motion of the 

 meridian sun, do, as it were, evidently point out the advantage they 

 receive from their position, by the clearness, politure, and comparative 

 splendour of the south side ; and the frequent mossiness of most trees 

 on the opposite side, does sufficiently note the unkindness of that aspect, 

 most evident in the bark of Oaks, white and smooth on trees growing 

 on the south-side of an hill, while those which are exposed to the north, 

 have an hard, dark, rougher, and more mossy integument, as I can now 

 demonstrate in a prodigious coat of it investing some pyracanths which 



U 2 



