OF FOREST-TREES. 



109 



younger shoots, are exceedingly tough and strong ; one of them being cHAP. III. 



of Ground-Oak, will out-last six of the best ash ; but this our coopers ^-^V^^ 



love not to hear of, who work by the great for sale, and for others. The 



smaller truncheons and spray, make billet, bavin, and coals ; and the 



bark is of price with the tanner and dyer, to whom the very saw-dust 



is of use, as are the ashes and lee for bucking linen, and to cure the 



ropishness of wine : And as it is probable the cups of our acorns would 



tan leather as well as the bark, I wonder nobody makes the experiment, 



as done in Turkey with the Valonia, which is a kind of acorn growing 



on the Oaks. The Ground-Oak, while young, is used for poles, cudgels, 



and walking-staffs, much come into mode of late, but to the waste 



of many a hopeful plant which might have proved good timber ; and 



I the rather declaim against the custom, because I suspect they are such 



as are for the most part cut and stolen by idle persons, and brought 



up to London in great bundles, without the knowledge or leave of the 



owners, who would never have gleaned their copses for such trifling uses. 



Here I am again to give a general notice of the peculiar excellency 



of the roots of most trees, for fair, beautiful, charaleted, and lasting 



timber, applicable to many purposes ; such as formerly made hafts for 



daggers, hangers, and knives, handles for staves, tobacco-boxes, and 



elegant joiners' work, and even for some mathematical instruments of the 



larger size, to be had either in or near the roots of many trees ; however, 



it is a kindness to premonish stewards and surveyors, that they do not 



negligently waste those materials : Nor may M^e here omit to mention 



tables for painters, which heretofore were used by the most famous artists, 



especially the curious pieces of Raphael, Durer, and Holbein, and before 



that of canvas, and much more lasting : To these add the galls, mistletoe, 



polypod, agaric, uvse, and many other useful excrescences, to the number 



of above twenty, which doubtless discover the variety of transudations, 



percolations, and contextures of this admirable tree * ; but of the several • vide Johan. 



fruits, and animals generated of them and other trees, Francisco Redi "i" choui, de 



promises an express treatise in his Esperienze intorno alia Generazione HilLi? '^'^'^"'^ 



de gV Insetti. Pliny affirms, that the galls break out altogether in one 



night, about the beginning of J une, and arrive to their full growth in one 



day ; this I should recommend to the experience of some extraordinary 



vigilant wood-man, had we any of our Oaks that produced them, Italy 



and Spain being the nearest that do. Galls are of several kinds, but grow 



upon a different species of Robur from any of ours, which are never 



