OF FOREST-TREES. 



Ill 



corn was found out, were heretofore the food of men, nay, of Jupiter CHAP. III. 

 himself, as well as other productions of the earth, till their luxurious '-^^"^ 

 palates were debauched: and even in the time of the Romans, the 

 custom was in Spain, to make a second service of acorns and mast, as 

 the French now do of marrons and chestnuts, which they likewise used 

 to roast under the embers : 



et querna glande repasta 



Equasse annosas vivendo corpora quercus. 



Fed "with the oaken mast, 

 The aged trees themselves in years surpass'd. 



And men had indeed hearts of Oak ; I mean, not so hard, but health 

 and strength, and lived naturally, and with things easily parable and 

 plain. 



Felix ilia setas mundi, justissima Nympha, 



Cum dabat umbra domura vivam tua, cum domus ipsa 



Decidua dominos pascebat fruge quietos, 



Solaque praebebant sylvestria poma secundas 



Gramineis epulas mensis ; nondura arte magist ra 



Arbor adulteriis prsetulerat insita nostris. Couleii PI. 1. vi. 



Blest age o' th' world, just nyniph, whe n man did dwell 



Under thy shade whence his provision fell ; 



Salads the meal, wildings were the desert ; 



No tree yet learned, by ill example, art. 



With insititious fruit, to symbolize> 



As in an emblem, our adulteries. 



Thus the sweet poet bespeaks the Dryad. But it is in another place * " Ch. i. b. iv. 

 where I show you what this acorn was. And even now I am told, that 

 those small young acorns which we find in the stock-doves' craws are 

 a delicious fare, as well as those incomparable salads, young herbs 

 taken out of the maws of partridges at a certain season of the year, 

 which gives them a preparation far exceeding all the art of cookery. — 

 Oaks bear also a knur, full of a cottony matter, of which they anciently 

 made wick for their lamps and candles; and among the Selectiora 

 Bemedia of Jo. Prcevotius, there is mention of an oil e querna glande 

 chymically extracted, which he affirms to be of the longest continuance, 

 and least consumptive of any other whatsoever for such lights, ita et uncia 

 singulis mensihus vix absumatur continuo igne. The ingenious author 



