128 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. moist by frequent refreshings upon some half-rotten fern, or litter, laid 

 ^^"^"^^ about the foot of the stem, the earth being a little stirred and depressed 

 for the better reception and retention of the water. 



11. Lastly, your plantations must, above all things, be carefully 

 preserved from cattle, and the concussions of impetuous winds, till they 

 are out of reach of the one, and sturdy enough to encounter the other. 



12. When you lop the side-boughs of an Elm, (which may be about 

 January, for the fire, and more frequently, if you desire to have them tall, 

 or that you would form them into hedges, for so they may be kept 

 plashed, and thickened to the highest twig, affording both a magnificent 

 and august defence against the winds and sun,) I say, when you trim 

 them, be careful to indulge the tops, for they protect the body of your 

 trees from the wet, which always invades those parts first, and will, 

 in time, perish them to the very heart ; so as Elms, beginning thus 

 to decay, are not long prosperous. Sir Hugh Piatt relates, as from 

 an expert carpenter, that the boughs and branches of an Elm should 

 be left a foot long, next the trunk, when they are lopped : but this is to 

 my certain observation, a very great mistake, either in the relator or au- 

 thor ; for I have noted of many Elms, so disbranched, that the remaining 

 stubs grew immediately hollow, and were as so many conduits or pipes, 

 to hold and convey the rain to the very body and heart of the tree. 



13. There was a cloister of the right French Elm in the little garden 

 near to her Majesty's, the Queen-mother's, chapel at Somerset-house, 

 which were, I suppose, planted there by the industry of the S. F. 

 Capuchines, that would have directed you to the incomparable use 

 of this noble tree, for shade and delight, into whatever figure you will 

 accustom them. I have myself procured some of them from Paris, but 

 they were so abused in the transportation, that they all perished, save 

 one, which now flourishes with me : I have also lately graffed Elms, 

 to a great improvement of their heads. Virgil tells us they will join 

 in marriage with the Oak p, and they would both be tried; and the success 



P Virgil is very animated in his idea of engrafting an Oak upon an Elm. He represents 

 the acorns as the fruit of the marriage ; and the swine cracking them under the tree : 

 " Glandemque sues fregere sub Ulmis." 



