OF FOREST-TREES. 



169 



wash over with a decoction made of the green husks of Walnuts, &c. CHAP. 

 I say, had we store of this material, especially of the Virginian, we ^^V" 

 should find an incredible improvement in the more stable furniture of our 

 houses, as in the first frugal and better days of Rome. 



Ilia domi natas, nostraque ex arbore mensas 

 Tempora viderunt : hos lignum stabat in usus, 



Annosam si forte nucem dejecerat Eurus. juv. 



For if it had been cut in that season, it would not have proved so sound, 

 as we show in our chapter of felling. It is certain, that the MenscB Nucinos 

 were once in price even before the Citron, as Strabo notes ; and nothing 

 can be more beautiful than some planks and works which I have beheld 

 of it, especially that which comes from Grenoble, of all others the most 

 beautiful and esteemed. 



S. They render most graceful avenues to our country dwellings, and 

 do excellently near hedge-rows ; but had need be planted at forty or fifty 

 feet interval, for they alfect to spread both their roots and branches. The 

 Bergstras (which extends from Heidelberg to Darmstadt) is all planted 

 with Walnuts ; for so, by another ancient law, the Bordurers were obliged 

 to nurse up and take care of them, and that chiefly for their ornament 

 and shade, so as a man may ride for many miles about that country under 

 a continued arbour, or close walk ; the traveller both refreshed with the 

 fruit and the shade, which some have causelessly defamed for its ill effects 

 on the head^, for which the fruit is a specific and a notable signature ; 

 although I deny not, but the scent of the fallen leaves, when they begin 

 to be damped with lying, may emit somewhat a heady steam, which to 

 some has proved noxious, but not whilst they were fresh and lively upon 

 the trees. How would such public plantations improve the glory and 

 wealth of a nation ! But where shall we find the spirit among our country- 

 men ? Yes, I will adventure to instance in those plantations of Sir Richard 



s In Italy, sleeping under trees was thought a great luxury : 

 — — — mollesque sub arbore somni 



Non absunt. virg. 

 On which account we must suppose that they were choice in the kind of trees most friendly 

 to people overcome with sleep. The shade of the Walnut was held to be particularly 

 unwholesome. Gravis et noxia, etiam capiti hiunano, omnibusque juxta fatis. Pun. 

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